


soul of my soul

by warriorSQ22



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Bagheera the panther, F/F, Odette the swan, Soulmate AU, What Was I Thinking?, also gimme permission to butcher the chronicles of narnia a bit lmao, contains mild mentions of child abuse, contains mild mentions of sexual assault, dream soulmate au, essentially an ambitious ouat re-write of s1 to 4a with a soulmate and soul creature twist, hook and robin make some appearances to move the plot along, jesus take the wheel, soul creatures, starts with young!swan queen, there's also some smut yo, this is currently the longest fic I've ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-21 00:04:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 93,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11932140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warriorSQ22/pseuds/warriorSQ22
Summary: Soul creatures are rare animal guides that exist in one's dreamscape to find their soulmate -- or so Emma Swan was told when she was a kid. She'd believed in it for a brief moment but as a foster kid forced to grow up way too quickly, she'd never put much stock into it. Years later, she meets her guide, an elusive panther featured way too many times in her dreams. He ends up leading her to Regina, a timid idealistic young girl who dresses way too princess-like and speaks like she's from an ancient civilization. Emma's intrigued but still in disbelief, even after they end up bonding. Their brief romance is cut short and soon after Emma ends up having a child, who she gives up for adoption. She doesn't see Regina again until years later when she's entering a strange town and dropping Henry back home. She's shocked to see the woman, a ghost from her past that she'd never truly been able to forget. Only, Regina isn't like the girl she actually remembers, and Emma's uncertain but Regina may actually not remember her...Follows most of the major season 1 to 4a events leading Emma and Regina through curses and realm travelling as their relationship deepens and they come to understand what it truly means to be soulmates.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [{fanart} soul of my soul](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11840832) by [regalducky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/regalducky/pseuds/regalducky). 



> This fic wouldn't have been possible without a number of people. 
> 
> To the mods of swan queen supernova, thank you so much for all of the thought and effort you've put into this event! 
> 
> To Emma, my fandom best friend, thank you for being such an amazing source of encouragement and being there to talk plot with me when I felt overwhelmed. You never stopped believing in me and that's such a novel experience for me especially when it comes to my writing. I love you so much!
> 
> To Kat, my cheerleader, thank you for helping me out along the way. You always managed to boost my confidence and your gif replies to my twitter posts always managed to make me smile!
> 
> To regalducky, Idk how you managed with my crazy writing tbh, I'm so grateful that you chose my story!
> 
> And last but certainly not least, a special thank you to my last minute betas Riya and Gabriella! I do wish I could have gotten to know you two better but alas, time constraints and all that. You guys are awesome!

"My soul and yours are the same, you appear in me, I in you, we hide in each other."  
— Rumi

 

* * *

 

 

Emma Swan is five when she hears the first whispers of soulmates in her first forever home. It doesn’t make much sense to her, other than something that sounds magical and cool.

 

She questions her Dad about it when he gets home from work and he sits her on his lap and regales her with tales of true love and soul creatures who guide a chosen person to the one who literally completes their soul.

 

It intrigues her and later that night when she’s being tucked in by Mom she asks Mom if she’d found her soulmate. Mom smiles, admits that she and dad _felt_ like soulmates. At her confused little tilt of the head, Mom tells her that only _chosen_ people are _born_ with their soul creatures. Emma questions her at that, asks what most children eventually ask about why she hasn’t seen a soul creature in her dreams yet. Mom tells her that sometimes soul creatures got lost on their way.

 

Emma smiles and hugs Mom, presses her tiny nose to hers and ask with wide innocent green eyes. “I’ll have one soon right?”

 

But mom doesn’t smile back at that, instead, she finishes tucking Emma in and kisses her on the forehead before quietly admitting that sometimes soul creatures and soulmates didn’t come at all.

 

It leaves Emma overwhelmingly disappointed.

 

A tragic car accident takes the life of the Swans from her a few days later. She’s too young to fully grasp what the nice officer who takes her away means when she says that they won't be coming back.

 

* * *

 

 

She cries for months after that, wallows in despair so deep it hangs around her like a dark cloud. And it's hard for her, adjusting to people who weren’t these nice loving people she grew up knowing as Mom and Dad. It takes her almost a year before she starts tentatively interacting with people again and as soon as she does she’s adopted for apparently the second time in her life.

 

Her second forever home is with an odd looking couple and their four adopted kids. Two boys and two girls. Emma doesn’t interact much at the start, until one of the boys exclaims he knows all about soulmates. She’s instantly intrigued, asks him to tell her all about it and he claims that his birth parents were soulmates. Emma’s new guardians (who insisted on being called ma and pa) end up overhearing their conversation and take Kenny outside and punish him.

 

They all knew never to mention talks of soulmates around the pair after that.

 

The couple end up adopting more children and by the time Emma turns six, they all get sent back into the system because of negligence.

 

At her third forever home with the Dracons, Emma starts seeing these wispy little floaty balls of light every night in her dreams. It spooks her and takes her mind back to soulmates and soul creatures and Emma learns an important lesson on her third day at the Dracon household: It’s rude to ask someone if they’ve met their soulmate. Mrs Dracon practically bristles when Emma asks the question and she doesn’t see the slap coming until her cheek is as red as a flaming tomato. She’s sent to bed early that night, her older foster sister Leia sending her pitying glances from her own tiny cot in their shared bedroom as she gets a telling off from Mr Dracon.

 

She starts going to school full time and it’s such a relief hanging out with people her own age. It manages to take her mind off of the wisps in her dreams. She keeps it to herself since they disappear whenever she tries chasing them and it’s not worth getting slapped a second time. Her escape soon becomes her own personal hell when the kids at school start teasing her about her thin lanky frame, too baggy hand-me-down clothes and her ratty sneakers. It’s made all the worse when she realizes that the words on the chalkboard blur together for her. But she grits her teeth and bears it, especially when it makes learning that much more difficult and she's quickly discouraged.

 

Between constantly being bullied, not understanding what’s being taught and running from wisps in her dreams that always take her down to the outskirts of a creepy lake, Emma’s severely stressed. It all comes sprawling out at school in a fit of absolute rage when she punches one of those obnoxious bullies in the face, almost breaking her little wrist in the process.

 

She’s expelled for a few days and has to be taken to get a brace for her wrist. She’s starved at home for her insolence and becomes even more rebellious when her supposed ‘parents’ start going out for days at a time and leaving them with a nanny who looks after them for only a couple of hours a day. Emma stays with the Dracons until she’s eight and when Mr Dracon suddenly passes away from complications, Mrs Dracon sends Emma and Leia packing, right back into the system again.

 

It’s here that Emma’s heart begins to harden -- tired with the disappointments in the preconceived notions of perfection every child has when hoping for their forever home. As she’s handed off to her first group home, Emma decides then and there that there was no such things as forever homes and soulmates because the world was not as nice a place as she’d once thought and such things would only exist in a make believe world.

 

* * *

 

The night of her ninth birthday something strange happens. Emma sums up all of her courage and follows the wisps down to the outskirts of the lake but this time she doesn't abruptly wake up. She runs as fast as she can, breath fogging in the weirdly cold dreamscape as she drops down to her knees to peer into the abnormally crystal clear waters of the lake.

 

At first, nothing happens. Then her own reflection shakes, shimmers and glows a blinding white that lights up the very surface of the water. Its brilliant and overbearing and Emma lifts a hand to shield her eyes. However, as soon as the light appears, it disappears and Emma slowly reopens her eyes, confused. Her heart races as she leans forward again, looking down into the endless crystal waters of the lake.

 

Suddenly she finds herself peering into the emerald depths of a beautiful Swan. Emma gasps, falling back on her haunches as the Swan blinks up at her, eyes quietly assessing…something. It unnerves her, especially when the Swan opens its beak and an awful wailing sound reverberates through the forest.

 

She jolts from her sleep, the wailing sound finally registering as one of her new foster brothers at the group home.

 

She doesn’t know what to think of the dream, not dwelling on the strangeness of it for long as there's now an awful sort of nervous energy surrounding everyone in the home as they bustle around. Its then that she realizes her first group home received a notice to vacate the building a month ago and that contractors were right outside waiting with cranes to tear the creaky old building apart.

 

As Emma Swan is once again forced to relocate, a firm set to her jaw and a tight grip to the little that she owns, she was sure of two things in her life: soulmates did not exist and good people were far and few.

 

* * *

 

She’s placed in a series of group homes over the course of the next few years. It's something she becomes accustomed to, and it’s made all the more easier that she barely has that many personal effects other than the blanket she’d been found in on the side of the road when she was abandoned, a small Swan pendant gifted to her from the only perfect family she’s ever known and her only pair of thick black framed prescription glasses she’d gotten from the system a few years back.

 

In her dreams she doesn't see the wisps or the Swan after that, just a shadow. A weird dark velvet shadow that moves in a cat like manner, slinking after her no matter where she ventures off to within her dreamscape.

 

* * *

 

 

At her seventh group home within four years, Emma meets her first friend. A lanky blonde haired boy named Peter.

 

Peter was one of those charismatic teens, freckled faced and cute and Emma immediately feels drawn to him due to his easy going smile and penchant for telling wonderful adventurous stories. He tells her that all of those stories were true – he’d lived those adventures with his soul creature and his soulmate. Within days of mentioning his soul creature, a lion he'd named Aslan, Peter amasses a host of admiring kids all clamoring for his attention. He regales them with tales he'd shared with his soulmate and the silvery grey wolf called Kaa that was his soulmate’s soul creature.

 

By the end of the week almost everyone in the group home was boasting about the soul creatures within their very own dreamscapes.

 

Emma’s slightly annoyed at the ease with which he speaks of such things -- things she’s been conditioned never to mention. And if she was being honest, she’s just a tad bit jealous and envious because as far as she was concerned, her dreams consist of weird shifting dreamscapes and a scary black shadow that would give even the toughest man some nightmares.

 

The black shadow continues to follow her throughout her dreamscape and it finally takes on the form of a giant cat, hovering just beyond the outskirts of her dreams -- just out of reach. It unsettles her not knowing if it was something real or tied to her imagination. Especially since, with Peter’s coaxing, she almost begins to believe in the soul creatures again.

 

Peter tells Emma more tales of the boy he met in his dreams every night, so sure was he that Humbert was his soulmate and that he lived in a foreign country. Peter tells her that their soul creatures Aslan and Kaa had been with them all their lives. That they'd both met at a really young age. They were planning to meet up when they were older.

 

It all sounds so epic and romantic. Emma wants to believe in it, to believe in him, she really did. But there was just no proof, no _physical_ proof that Peter could provide her with of this Humbert being real. He had no photographs, no contact number, no address. And Emma’s just that skeptical to believe that Peter had good intentions but he’d fabricated the entire thing for attention.

 

"How the hell are you going to meet some _dream person_?" Emma scoffs.

 

"The Savior." Peter says confidentially.

 

"Care to explain?"

 

"You wouldn't get it." Peter rolls his eyes. "The Savior will come to rescue her princess but also us and they'll link all other realms to Narnia."

 

"Riiiight." Emma smiles tightly. She was convinced that Peter let his imagination run away with him _way_ too much to be considered healthy.

 

Days before Emma turns sixteen she gets adopted again. She’s extremely cautious this time, this woman, Ingrid, seems way too friendly. She gives Emma her own room and buys her new clothes and even takes her side when one of her foster siblings start messing with a tape recorder she’d borrowed from one of the kids at the group home.

 

She gets taken out for pizza and then to an arcade on her sixteenth birthday and she begrudgingly starts trusting her new foster Mom who acts more like an older sister to her. Emma still maintains some distance between them, refuses to even admit that her walls had wavered significantly.

 

After a few months of living with Ingrid, Emma finally gets a close up of the creature stalking her dreams. It’s a black panther that watches her with curious eyes.

 

He continues frequenting her dreams and Emma remains always at a distance, too afraid to approach. A few days later, Ingrid (who she’d officially dubbed the coolest Mom ever) takes her to the cinema with her foster siblings (for the first official time in her teenage life) and they end up seeing a special viewing of the Disney movie _The Jungle Book_.

 

The panther in the movie is just as sly and as cunning as the one she sees every night and so that night when she dreams, she finally musters the courage to approach the standoffish creature and timidly brush a hand across the top of his furry head.

 

He  _mewls_ , a contented sound that shocks Emma and she giggles, loving the way he tilts his head and practically leans into her touch.

 

“Took me long enough huh. You know, I’ve thought of the perfect name for you.” Emma tells the panther. “I’ll call you…Bagheera!”

 

He looks utterly unimpressed with the name, especially with the eerie way he raises an eyebrow at her. But he licks her chin and curls himself against her side when she drops onto the dewy grass. She smiles, utterly charmed despite his obvious attitude, and she doesn’t know how long she spends curling her fingers through thick downy black fur before she begins to feel herself waking up as the last vestiges of sleep leave her body.

 

The very next day Emma’s life takes a bit of a turn. Ingrid pulls her from school earlier than the others -- just her. She reasons that Ingrid likes her best and just wants to spend some more time together before the others got home. But while they're out getting ice cream, Emma's ‘cool new step Mom’ starts going on and on about a faint white glow she’d noticed emanating from Emma’s bedroom the night before.

 

She shows her a picture then -- a picture of Emma, asleep and shrouded in a faint cloak of white that looks strangely like a flash of light concentrated just above the left side of her chest -- right above her heart.

 

It’s unnerving and Emma decides that it’s obviously edited -- poorly so. At a loss for words, Emma could only stare at Ingrid as she pockets the polaroid photo.

 

“You met your soulmate.” Ingrid says. “Your _magical_ soulmate. And you glowed because you’re _The Savior_.”

 

“Wait, you believe in soulmates?” Emma chooses to ask instead, ignoring the crazy spew of magic and saviors to regard Ingrid with a pensive look.

 

“Oh I believe in them alright. And you Emma, you’re destined for great things as the Savior.”

 

Ingrid goes on a long winded rant, certain that the glow was magic, _pure light magic_ and that Emma was beginning to ‘unlock her potential’. Emma laughs at it all, convinced that Ingrid was pulling some elaborate stunt to trick her. She's poised to tell her about Bagheera, about finally having a soul creature she’d only named the night before -- but she didn’t want to sound too crazy. She’d only really interacted with him for the first time last night and for all she knew, it could have been a fluke.

 

Instead, she rolls her eyes and licks her ice cream and tells Ingrid that soulmates were possibly real, but magic obviously wasn’t. Ingrid laughs then too, strained and stilted and just a tad bit unhinged. And in hindsight, Emma should have really seen it coming when Ingrid suddenly stops walking and pushes her right off of the sidewalk and into oncoming traffic.

 

She’s startled out of her wits as the car swerves in time to avoid the collision and Emma tosses the rest of her uneaten ice cream away and runs back to the house on shaky legs. Her mind a whir of what Ingrid had said to her, about the magic, about soulmates, leaves her so confused and she berates herself for trusting her, grabs a duffel with her stuff and hightails it back to the group home.

 

Emma vows that that was the last time she would allow herself to be tricked.

 

Bagheera surprisingly remains in her dreams that night and as if sensing her distress, allows her to use him as a cuddle mat. And Emma begrudgingly accepts (with some left over glee) that he was the real deal -- a _soul creature_ . But not just _any_ soul creature, he was _Emma’s_ soul creature.

 

A few weeks later Emma's dreams become all weird again, but this time she always finds herself chasing the panther. They move through dreamscapes as she chases him, sometimes down dark creepy alleys that always end in rugged forested paths that swerved around trees taller than skyscrapers. Or across wide open fields filled with sweet smelling flowers and multicolored butterflies that tickle Emma’s nose and perch in her wild blonde curls.

 

It’s fun and absolutely amazing but also quite unnerving, especially since Bagheera disappears just as she catches up to him or just when he makes it over or around some obstacle Emma's sure hadn’t been there when she’d looked up.

 

She also couldn’t understand why she gets winded in these dreams, chasing Bagheera as his eyes glow purple -- like what she was currently doing. Bagheera had led her into a meadow that contained a huge apple tree spanning at least the width of Emma’s old high school building and she’d stopped to look at it, in awe of the massive trunk of the tree.

 

The panther actually growls at her, a fierce sound that cuts right through her with a shiver and she's immediately on his trail again, boots muffled against the springy grass as she follows him just up a slight incline that lead towards the tree.

 

“Bagheera!” She calls, breathless and red faced and she’s miffed that he'd do this, that he’d keep running to who the hell knows what and not allow Emma to appreciate her surroundings. “I’m wearing my best yellow ducky pyjama pants here you ingrate, if I rip them I’ll make you disappear.” Bagheera growls and begrudgingly slows his pace and Emma catches up to him, reaching out a hand just as he ducks behind the apple tree.

 

His eyes are ablaze with that strange color again, the alluring purple that Emma swears smells like expensive vanilla, and in an instant Emma gets the wind knocked right out of her when something comes barreling into her from the other side with just as much speed. They both fall to the ground, clunking foreheads with the force of their momentum.

 

“Bagheera what the fuck.” Emma growls, a pathetic little whine leaving her lips as she clutches her most likely bruised forehead. “You literally are the worst.”

 

But Bagheera doesn't respond, or move away. And as Emma removes her hands from her face and pushes up on her elbows, she realizes that the thing currently draped over half of her torso isn’t her unruly panther at all. Her breath catches in her throat as the person’s head lifts and suddenly Emma’s staring into a pair of the darkest beautiful irises she’s ever seen.

 

And there’s a _feeling_ that passes between them in this moment. Something that's almost tangible, like a click, or an electric current as Emma’s heart races against her chest and her palms get clammy. The very air seems to teem with it -- with this air of sudden rightness and Emma’s immediately emotional at it all and doesn’t understand why her eyes threaten to burn with tears the way it does.

 

“Holy shit.” She whispers softly, eyes tracking to the lengthy elegantly braided hair curled to one side of the girl’s neck, the ruffled unbuttoned blue riding coat and the tan colored leather pants. _The leather pants_ . “Holy _shit_.” and the girl jerkily shoots to her feet and makes a mad dash for the apple tree.

 

“Wait!” Emma calls and the brunette hesitantly freezes. Emma pushes herself up from the grass, dusting off her rear and feeling severely under dressed as the girl turns around, wide eyed and fearful, fingers wringing themselves tightly as she stares at Emma. And Emma wonders what she sees in Emma herself as her eyes not so subtly take in the disheveled hair, twisted tank top and childish pyjama pants.

 

Emma smiles, a strained, unsure thing that she’s sure looks more like a nervous grimace. They stand there for a small eternity, pink apple blossoms curling and fluttering to the ground like some strange romantic movie. Especially since Emma could swear that there was also an unfair sort of radiant glow about the girl, highlighted in her soft olive skin and plump cherub lips. And now she was breathless at her mere presence.

 

“Who –”

 

And before she could complete her sentence, the brunette turns and takes off behind the apple tree again, boots muffled by the grass.

 

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” Emma hollers in response a second later as she gives chase.

 

It’s useless though, Bagheera jumps in front of her, derailing her progress as she nearly trips over him in her haste. She glares at the panther, who just licks her cheek and pretty soon his form starts to fade and Emma knows she’s waking up.

 

* * *

 

 

The next few days after getting home from school, Emma starts finishing her chores in record time just so she could go to bed earlier herself -- determined to find the girl who’d ran off.

 

But sleep wasn’t very forthcoming...and she tosses and turns in her bed for long hours, unable to drift off pleasantly. It’s made all the more harder when seven younger kids get adopted within the span of a week. It derails her thoughts, makes her uneasy, especially with the way they were all being paraded around in their best clothes as if they were slaves being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

 

She hates weeks like these where she was constantly being prodded and poked at like some strange specimen. Scrubbed clean of any and all ‘defects’, getting health check ups that make her bristle when they touched old scars that marred her pale skin from the homes she didn't have the best experiences in.

 

To get her mind off of it, she begins assisting Peter at night with tucking in the younger kids who whine and cry when they don’t get chosen. She remembers those feelings well -- crying herself to sleep and assessing just why she wasn’t really able to secure a forever home. Peter cheers them all up with his stories and Emma allows herself to revel in his tales of soul creatures and soulmates, dragons that were longer than skyscrapers and beasts that could walk on their hind legs and talk.

 

It’s all so fantastical -- like a rich tale told specifically for the amusement of children. But the breathlessness to Peter’s face is exciting. The rush of exhilaration that crosses his handsome features once he mentions Humbert is also quite convincing as he weaves his tale of old.

 

Emma pauses once he mentions _magic_ and a witch -- an evil white witch that needed to be defeated at all costs by the real rulers of the land. She considered herself a pretty good judge of character, having a sort of sixth sense that almost always allowed her to know when someone was lying to her. But sitting here listening to Peter's tales, she's unsure of its validity and she stops listening to them altogether.

 

Magic wasn’t real and regardless of the gusto with which Peter told his stories, the adults in the orphanage were always trying to discourage them about believing in soulmates.

 

 _Soul creatures are extensions of yourself dears, not any silly soulmate or the other_ the primary caretaker at the orphanage had told them all once. Peter had contested her views quite admirably and had been threatened with a trip to the psych ward for his troubles. He had stirred quite a bit of trouble with the heated debate and a social worker was called in to lecture them all on the topic again the following night.

 

 _Everyone knows soul creatures are extensions of one’s soul and accompanies a person’s dreams from birth until death, they serve no real purpose, especially not ones related to soulmates_ the old man had said.

 

But Peter had never let those arguments discourage him. Emma didn’t know if he was brave in giving these children unfounded hope or unfairly stupid. But she was still hesitant to fully trust him -- unsure if he was even telling them the whole truth about these tales of his.

 

Bagheera’s sudden presence in Emma’s life was a point of contradiction for her. He was only a part of her dreams for a solid month and his personality really _contrasted_ hers.

 

They weren’t very similar in the slightest.

 

He was a bit short tempered, tended to glower or roll his dark eyes at Emma as he strutted along at her side with such a regal poise she was hard pressed to admit that he probably belonged to someone _royal_.

 

And for the first time in a long while Emma thinks of Mom, and how she’d said that soul creatures can sometimes get lost on their way. It makes her wonder if soul creatures could also get mixed up over who they belonged to.

 

She was scared to mention it though. She didn’t need a trip to the psych ward on her record, especially when she finds out that Peter was immune to these threats because a distant relative of his owned the orphanage and the psych ward there by extension.

 

She decides to keep it all to herself.

 

At night Emma thinks of the girl. From what she had seen, she was pretty -- unnervingly so. She’s shaken at the encounter, at the dark eyes that had held her hostage, at the carefully masked surprise on her face. Emma’s still able to smell that strange enticing aroma of sweet vanilla every single time she awakens and she desperately wanted to know her name. The girl’s mere presence had made Emma nervous with anticipation, with curiosity, and she was determined to find this beautiful stranger who had landed in her dreams.

 

Bagheera no longer ran off before her with the speed of a bullet as if in a hurry to get somewhere. Instead, he walks alongside her, tail swishing happily, his dark form a noticeable shadow as light peers down from the dense foliage of overgrown trees.

 

“Come on Bags, where is she?” Emma whines miserably. She had been oddly patient with the panther and he wasn’t exactly forthcoming. Bagheera side eyes her and turns his head. Emma laughs, fondly scratches behind his ear and he preens like a kitten.

 

It had already been two weeks since her encounter with the girl and her doubts had settled in making her wonder if she’d truly seen her. She hadn’t even talked to Emma -- had just taken off as if Emma was someone out to hurt her. She had looked rather...important, even dressed in clothes that Emma recognized was characteristic of jockeys. Emma had been exposed to that type of clothing in one of her previous group homes where they were allowed to ride horses across the grounds. But maybe this girl wasn’t a recent type of jockey...

 

She had a regal poise, one of a princess...or maybe a lady. And maybe she’d ran because Emma’s own style of dressing was...off?

 

Emma frowns, peering down at her white tank top and denim jeans and sighs heavily.

 

Too lost in thought was she to notice Bagheera’s ears perking up, but when he suddenly takes off in a rush, her head jerks up.

 

“Bagheera!” She cries, immediately following. The air brushing against her skin suddenly feels colder somehow and she shivers, suppressing her chills as she runs after him.

 

“Dammit, couldn’t you give me a signal or something?!” Emma pants and Bagheera whines, carefully leading her through the twists in the path, over knotted tree roots and fallen logs and down a slope towards a clearing that held a beautiful shimmery lake.

 

Emma gasps, eyes hesitantly taking in the deserted place in daylight. “I know this place.”

 

Bagheera freezes like a statue at the far end of the lake, dark eyes carefully sweeping around the treeline and across the water before settling on a spot on it’s shiny surface. Emma’s wandering feet immediately take her to the edge of the lake where she stands, admiring the stillness of its clear crystal waters.

 

Dropping to her knees, she hangs over the edge and peers at her reflection, remembering what had happened the last time. It seems to shimmer back at her, light bouncing off of its exterior from above and for a moment she dips a hand in, skimming it over the surface.

 

The water's like velvet, cool against her palm, but doesn't seem to leave any lasting impression as it slips between her fingers, not leaving a single drop upon them.

 

Curiously, Emma pulls back and suddenly, she's once again peering down at a white Swan.

 

Her breath hitches in her throat as the Swan’s head breaks free of the water, and she falls back, trembling and scared as the rest of the Swan towers over her, white wings extended in either direction holding a regal poise, head lifted high as it's equally green eyes stares down into hers.

 

Emma fights the urge to scream, to turn tail and run. But she can't even move, so entranced by the beautiful beast who takes a tentative step towards her, seemingly just as unnerved and shy.

 

“H-hi.” Emma finds herself stuttering, the chatter of the cold seeping into her bones from the environment now registering to her sluggish brain. The Swan’s eyes gleam, a muted white color, and Emma feels immediate relief from the cold as warmth returns to her cheeks.

 

The Swan tilts its head towards her and they both stare at each other for an undetermined amount of time.

 

“Odette!” A voice calls, husky and breathless. It breaks her out of her staring and Emma’s head jerks to the side, watching with building excitement as _the girl_ bursts through the treeline and halts abruptly when she notices the scene before her -- Emma sitting on her butt, arms bracketed behind her as the Swan -- is nowhere to be seen.

 

Emma looks frantically around for Bagheera and when she doesn’t find him either she shoots to her feet.

 

The girl is still paused by the treeline just breaking the clearing on the far side of the lake and Emma curses beneath her breath because she looks like she’s going to run.

 

“Hi!” Emma calls, _please don’t run away from me again_ , she finishes lamely in her head.

 

There’s a moment where they just stare at each other -- Emma too scared to move lest she wakes up or this image of the mystery girl disappears once and for all.

 

Mystery girl takes a tentative step forward, revealing her turquoise sequined dress that fits snugly over her upper body and flares out at the waist. It’s pretty. As pretty as her, contrasting nicely with her olive skin and long dark hair and not for the first time Emma muses on where she was possibly from.

 

Those dark eyes hold Emma spellbound as the girl nervously wrings her fingers together, taking another few tentative steps that brings her out of the safety of the trees.

 

And there’s that _feeling_ again. The unidentifiable feeling Emma's been unable to stop obsessing over. It seems to hover over them like a gentle cloak, linking them with its almost tangible warmth and overwhelming rightness. It pools within Emma’s stomach like a lingering caress that makes her inhale sharply and she wants to investigate it.

 

Inquire if _she_ feels it too...

 

Emma abruptly breaks the entrancing eye contact and decides to meet her there. She walks, legs a bit shaky with anticipation, eyes falling towards a grassy little path that curiously begins to curl around the girl’s _bare_ feet.

 

And suddenly within the blink of an eye, they were back in that meadow again, the huge sprawling apple tree a vision behind them.

 

Emma startles and from the looks of it, so does the girl.

 

“I'm so sorry.” The girl says immediately, her voice soft and sweet.

 

Emma’s brows furrow. “For what?”

 

“I was thinking about the first time I ever saw you and I...I guess here we are?” She smiles, turning in her elaborate dress as she takes in the sprawling meadow and the warmth of the sunlight dappling across its leaves. “At least it's warmer here than at the lake.”

 

Emma's still a little entranced at her voice, but she's nothing if not direct and so she stumbles a bit closer, cursing her suddenly sluggish feet and asks. “Who are you?”

 

The girl looks at her, a tiny mischievous smile curving around the corner of her lips. “I’m sorry, where are my manners? My name is Regina. Regina Mills.”

 

“Emma Swan.” Emma says not expecting Regina to curtsy in her adorable lady like dress and bow.

 

“Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Lady Emma. I am utterly sorry for my poor behaviour which ruined our first encounter.”

 

Emma blinks, taken aback by the tone and the poised manner in which Regina spoke.

 

“Where’d you run off to anyway?”

 

“I…” Regina brows furrow. She shrugs. “I know not.”

 

"Know not.” Emma repeats, a dry chuckle slipping past her lips as she fights with her intense urge to get the girl to spill everything about herself. “Where the hell are you even from?"

 

“I beg your pardon?”

 

“Where do you live?”

 

Regina side eyes her for a moment and Emma raises an eyebrow. “We own an estate in the White Kingdom, it’s a little over three days ride from the royal palace itself.”

 

“The who now?” Emma splutters, disbelief at the mention of kingdoms and palaces.

 

"The White Kingdom? It’s in the Enchanted Forest." Regina says, a little eyebrow of her own quirking up. “What a strange question to ask...”

 

" _The Enchanted Forest?_ " Emma snorts, amused. "Now I know I’m dreaming.” She mutters.

 

“Yes, this is a dream, isn’t it?” Regina says, eyes bouncing intriguingly from the wild flowers of the meadow towards the canopy of the apple tree which seems to hide the unidentifiable source lighting it up. Regina turns towards her. “I’ve never met anyone here before, certainly not someone so…”

 

“So?” Emma bristles as those dark eyes sweep over her once more.

 

Regina smiles, a tiny curve to her lips as her eyes sweep over the curiously rainbow colored flowers of the meadow. “Different.” She settles on, and something tugs warmly in Emma’s chest. “It’s honestly such a wonderful thing.”

 

“What are you, some sort of woodland princess?" Emma asks, a little perturbed.

 

Regina confirms nor denies Emma's question, instead she chooses to sit herself primly upon the tuft of grassy land beneath their feet and pat the space at her side, asking a question of her own.

 

"Where are _you_ from?"

 

Emma immediately takes the invitation, sitting just a little distance away and folding her legs together. "Currently? Buena Vista."

 

"Such an oddly named kingdom." Regina muses, brows furrowed in that cutely adorable manner Emma was coming to associate with her. “Is that across the sea from King Midas’s palace?” The remark makes Emma grin, quietly amused. 

 

“I have no idea where that is. Where I live is the furthest thing from being an actual kingdom unless we're talking about its close proximity to the Disney theme park. But I love city life.”

 

Regina tilts her head like a confused little puppy. "What's a city?"

 

Emma chuckles, not dwelling too much on the absurdity of the questions that seem so outlandish to her. "You're really trying to mess with me aren't you?"

 

A second later, a soft soothing voice starts echoing around the clearing. It was the voice of a boy and Emma immediately springs to her feet, body tensed, a rock at the ready. She shakes her head at herself, how was she going to defend herself and this girl she’d just met against some unknown voice with a rock?

 

"Oh," Regina's brows furrow, then her eyes light up as the voice calls again. "It's Dan." She whispers, such affection lacing her tone Emma’s hard pressed to admit that it sent a wave of apprehension coiling tightly through her chest.

 

"You know this bodiless entity?" Emma's asks seriously, eyes narrowing a bit as they vigilantly sweep over the meadow.

 

"He's real, I can assure you. It must almost be time for supper."

 

"Supper." Emma repeats. "Oh you mean dinner?"

 

Regina giggles. “You have such strange words.”

 

Emma raises an eyebrow. “Says the woodland princess who sounds like she just stepped out of a literal storybook. What'd your parents do, send you to etiquette school?”

 

“I have tutors.” Regina says, a bit dejectedly. “Etiquette is…the most invasive of them all.”

 

“I can imagine.”

 

"I'm so sorry Emma but I must leave you now." Regina reaches out and places a hand against her shoulder. Emma’s woefully unprepared for the direct contact and she startles at it, at the warmth radiating from that gentle touch against her pale skin and that _feeling_ between them seems to bloom within her chest. Regina drops her hand, looking a little alarmed herself. “I do hope we meet again.”

 

“Yeah, uh, sure.”

 

Emma isn’t even surprised when Regina suddenly begins to fade away. It leaves her a bit stricken, losing her new acquaintance so soon but when Bagheera’s dark form comes leaping off of one of the branches of the surrounding trees, she focuses on scolding him for his lack of tact and attitude until she feels herself waking up.

 

* * *

 

 

“You dress quite oddly.” Is how Emma’s greeted the next time she bursts through the treeline towards the meadow and meets the sprawled form of Regina, lying between the multicolored flowers and butterflies.

 

“Yeah well not all of us want or can afford to dress like royalty.” She retorts, slipping to the ground just beside Regina and gesturing at Regina’s pretty fuchsia colored dress. Regina rolls her eyes.

 

“What exactly do you even call this?” Regina asks, reaching out to tentatively poke Emma’s thigh.

 

“What? My jeans?” Emma asks, confused.

 

“Jeans.” Regina says, the word sounding quite foreign coming from her lips. “I have never seen such a material before.”

 

“Really? You guys need to upgrade that forest place. It’s called denim and it’s very comfy.”

 

“Denim.” Regina reaches out towards her again. This time she runs a hand along Emma’s thigh in begrudging intrigue. It's entirely innocent, but Emma’s unprepared for it and an embarrassingly squeaky sound leaves her lips. Regina tilts her head, eyes quietly lingering over Emma’s tank top and jeans before catching her eyes as her lips twist upwards. "With your denim and barely there tunics, you have the build of a knight." She says and Emma chuckles.

 

“Better a knight than a frilly little princess.”

 

Regina frowns, a little offended. “What’s wrong with being a princess?”

 

Emma raises her hands in a placating gesture. “Absolutely nothing, as long as I’m not one.”

 

“I’m...sort of a princess.” Regina admits quietly.

 

Emma smiles. “Well you’re the first I’ve ever met.” She says and Regina hastily scrambles to sit up, eyes wide with excitement.

 

"I'm ever so excited to attend the name day of the baby princess!"

 

"Name day?" Emma frowns, once again unaccustomed to Regina’s strange words. “Another princess?”

 

"Yes, well, she’s not really a baby, she’s only a few summers younger than I am but it’s what I've been calling her in my head.” Regina blushes. “She’s more important than I am. It's tradition for royalty to hold a grand ball inviting the entire kingdom when they gain a year in age."

 

“Oh, you mean like a birthday.”

 

“I’m guessing that’s the equivalent in your kingd – I mean _city_.”

 

"It is. So you’re less important than this baby princess?"

 

"Oh, Mother says that’s a little complicated and tied to my father’s disgraced past. But I’ve heard of ways that I can become a fully recognized one just like the fair maiden with the glass slipper who’d had not a dime to her name. Mother says...” And here Regina blushes again. “Forgive me, Mother says that ladies should not gossip."

 

Emma raises an eyebrow. "Your mother says an awful lot."

 

"Yes well, she's..."

 

"Overbearing?"

 

Regina frowns. “In a manner of speaking."

 

“Our caretakers at the foster home can be that way too. Especially with me. They think I’m a troublemaker, but I’m not!"

 

“Foster home?”

 

And with practiced ease, Emma explains it to her. “Yeah, it’s a home that takes in kids who have been abandoned by their parents.”

 

“A place for orphans?”

 

Emma bristles at the word, shying away from Regina's eyes that observe her so curiously. “Yeah.” She says tersely.

 

“I’m sorry, did I offend you?” Regina asks, intuitively.

 

“Na, I just.” Emma’s brows furrow as she searches for the right explanation. “I just don’t really like that word.”

 

“Oh, then I won't say it again.”

 

Emma smiles as they talk a little bit more about themselves. She mentions the kids at the home to Regina -- the ones she helps look after. The ones who she thought had a shot at a good home. And Regina tells her all about her favourite horse, an animal with fur as black as midnight who she calls Rocinante.

 

And Emma can’t help but wonder more at the princess’s life as Regina tells her little things about her father, curiously leaving out any and all details about her mother. It intrigues Emma. _She_ intrigues Emma. And when Emma’s form begins to fade as she feels herself waking up, she can’t help but long for their next encounter within this dreamscape.

 

* * *

 

 

At school Emma’s semi-productive. She daydreams about her encounters with Regina and totally blanks when she gets called on for an answer in Math. She’s a bit humiliated, especially when she realizes that the other kids were laughing at her.

 

But she doesn’t allow it to get to her. The only thing that gets to her is a younger kid being bullied during lunchtime at the swings and she intervenes without thinking and gets her head promptly slammed against a wall. The force of the impact snaps the left hinge off of her glasses and it slides off of her face and towards the muddy school grounds.

 

That infuriates Emma. And she goes on an abrupt rampage, pummeling the boy so hard in the face that she breaks his nose.

 

The circle of chanting kids all around them goading on the fight cheer and the minute Emma turns to engage them, she was being abruptly tugged, no, _dragged_ by her sleeves into the principal’s office by the principal herself.

 

Her little victory doesn’t go unpunished -- she’s suspended for a couple of days and has to attend a couple lectures on proper behavior at school for the next two weeks.

 

She’s unfazed, already planning to skip all of those boring classes when she also gets a visit from her new middle aged social worker, a sassy brunette with deceptively pretty brown eyes by the name of Casey who treats Emma with respect rather than as an obligation. She speaks to Emma in soft tones, coaxing responses that other adults just can't seem to get out of her. Emma had developed a small crush on the woman and it makes her overwhelmingly disappointed in herself when Casey delivers the news that the incident would go on her lengthy problematic permanent record.

 

It’s another nail in her coffin of hopes and dreams of ever being adopted and Emma’s blood boils and her eyes water and she just wants to stop feeling like a screw up. The home doesn't even offer to get Emma new prescription glasses because she was being punished for her misbehavior. So she gets tape and tapes it back together, good as new, and wears it proudly.

 

She visits Regina in the dreamscape that night, tells her everything and the princess listens with wide eyed interest as Emma pauses considerately to explain some confusing terms to her.

 

Regina doesn’t judge her for her past. She actually worries, _worries_ about Emma’s safety and asks her to resort to violence as a last ditch effort. Emma wholeheartedly agrees without argument under the direct observation of those dark intriguing eyes that glimmer a warm brown in the direct sunlight and Regina smiles and hugs her for the first time.

 

Emma’s breath catches in her throat at the gentleness to the action, at the care burning within those eyes she’s come to really _really_ like. It’s made all the more better when Regina smiles at her, a _full-toothy-eye-crinkling-oh-you’re-so-silly-but-I-like-you_ type of smile and Emma’s heart flips.

 

* * *

 

 

The topic of soulmates hits her offhandedly one day when Peter’s rambling to another group of kids in the playroom. And she’s startled at his words, at that _feeling_ he tries to desperately describe every single time he encounters Humbert.

 

Emma’s heart’s not really into it anymore, this soulmate thing, but Bagheera did lead her to Regina...

 

It makes Emma hopeful. Peter was convinced that Humbert lived somewhere. That he was a real life person who exists. So Surely Regina lived nearby. Her clothes looked timely but maybe that was in the job description?

 

Regina did say that she lived in the enchanted forest which - the Disney theme park had introduced a new place in the theme park that Emma was sure had a similar name. She could have worked there and be forced into those bulky dresses.

 

And maybe that feeling that Emma always felt around her especially whenever Regina touched her meant that they were meant for each other? That they would be together someday?

 

But Regina was a naturally tactile person. She loved lazily running her fingers through Emma’s hair or randomly touching some part of her body. That didn’t automatically mean that she _liked_ Emma _in that way_.

 

Emma goes to sleep that night with a racing heart and tries to formulate a plan of action before she’s lulled to sleep and abruptly disappointed when Regina doesn't turn up.

 

* * *

 

A few days later Emma’s led into a different part of the dreamscape by the panther.  She's mesmerized, having only visited this beach when she had been in her first forever home.

 

The waters are calm where they curl and break in light foamy waves upon the shore and Emma walks on over and dips her toes into the oddly warm water. Even the sea breeze here hits Emma with a round of nostalgia and she remembers building sandcastles on the shore with Mom and learning how to swim with Dad.

 

She inhales sharply, throat burning even now at those memories that seem so fuzzy to her now. And she stills for a moment and tries to replay every fond memory of them she remembers when she's scared she'd forget them.

 

There's the rhythmic thumping of feet running along the sandy shoreline and that faint pleasant tugging sensation in the pit of her stomach tells her that Regina's near.

 

“I wanna show you how to build the best sandcastle in the history of sandcastles today.” Emma says as Regina reaches her side.

 

She’s engulfed in warm arms and that exotic vanilla and can't stop smiling when Regina suddenly pulls back and drops to her knees to pet Bagheera. The panther mewls and licks her face and Emma casts her gaze around, looking for Regina’s soul creature.

 

“Of course. After you explain exactly what it entails.”

 

“It’s a miniature castle made out of sand.”

 

“Hmm, can we use Bagheera as the castle guard?”

 

“Sure, if we want it _infiltrated_.” Emma says and Bagheera growls and removes himself from her side and walks on over to Regina’s. “Just admit that you like her more than me you traitor.”

 

“He does not.” Regina laughs and affectionately hugs the panther as he nuzzles his face against her side. She then turns towards the waters and the smile on her face reaches her eyes. “Oh I do love it here.”

 

“You visit the ocean often princess?”

 

“I've always heard about the ocean, but have yet to see it with my own eyes. Is this truly what it looks like, Emma?”

 

Emma nods, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips as Regina's eyes sparkle with wonder. “Yup. And I'm guessing you don't know how to swim.”

 

“No.” Regina says ruefully. “Mother says it's a skill best suited for commoners.”

 

Emma rolls her eyes. “It's a skill for life. Plus it's fun. And hey, if we ever meet in real life, I'll teach you.”

 

Regina laughs. “I think I'd like that very much.”

 

“Hey, how come your Swan’s never really here with us?” Emma asks curiously as they automatically start strolling along the beach.

 

Regina’s brows furrow. “I don’t really know.”

 

“Bagheera’s with us most of the time but Odette always seems to disappear.”

 

“Well, she is a bit on the shy side. I met her when I was nine but --”

 

“Wait.” Emma says, reaching out to catch Regina’s arm. “What do you mean you met her at nine?”

 

Regina stiffens a little but doesn’t shy away from the question. “Yes. I know that’s rather odd since they’re usually there from birth but I’ve only had her since I was nine.”

 

“Hmm.” Emma hums. “Bagheera’s only been with me for the past few months.” She frowns.

 

Regina nudges her playfully in the arm. “Well you’ve got him now and he seems to adore you.”

 

“Really?” Emma says dryly, watching Bagheera practically mould himself against Regina’s side as they stroll along, side eyeing Emma briefly as she mentions his name.“How can you tell?”

 

Regina chuckles. “I can tell. But Odette loves wandering off on her own. She usually only comes around the estate when Mother’s not around and Daniel and I can roam freely around the grounds.”

 

Emma felt even more confused at this revelation. Regina spoke of the Swan as if she were more than a mere wisp of consciousness from Regina herself. She spoke of the Swan as if she were _real._

 

“What do you mean she comes around the estate?”

 

“Actually I only met her officially at the age of nine but I can recall many times in which I’ve seen her before that. She’s been visiting me since I was a girl.”

 

And Emma thinks back on her childhood and remembers Odette and that lake she’d met Regina at during their second encounter and can’t seem to wrap her mind around its significance.

 

“Well she seemed...friendly enough the first time I met her at the lake.”

 

“I do apologize for that.” Regina says. “She flew on ahead of me so fast and I didn’t know what she was hunting so avidly until you showed up again.”

 

Emma grins, tucking her fingers into the pockets of her jeans when they come to a stop at a point suitably distant from the crashing waves that hit the rocks in the distance and spray water in the air.

 

“Here’s good enough. And hey, I’m really glad I met you, princess.”

 

Emma almost yelps when she’s suddenly pulled to the ground by an eager Regina. Regina squints at her playfully, and pokes her on the nose.

 

“Are you getting sentimental on me, Miss Swan?” She teases and Emma rolls her eyes, ignoring the heat steadily climbing up her neck.

 

“Only you can manage to make me annoyed at my own name.”

 

Regina laughs, full of so much joy and wonder Emma can only sigh, caught up in the blissful feeling thrumming warmly between them.

 

“Oh hush, and show me your sand castle building expertise before I get bored and cover you with it instead.”

 

Emma lifts an eyebrow. “That a challenge princess?”

 

Regina catches her off guard again when she suddenly tackles Emma to the ground. They giggle, rolling around in the dirt and actively clamoring for the top when Regina clamps her thighs around Emma’s hips and traps her in her hold.

 

Emma almost loses the ability to speak when Regina’s suddenly peering down at her with those beautiful dark eyes that look so brown as they glint with mischievous amusement and pointedly brushes their noses together.

 

“Don’t underestimate me, _querida_ , you have no idea what I’m capable of.” She growls softly, the husky tenor of her voice rolling perfectly over the Spanish term of endearment and making _that thing_ between them turn Emma’s insides to mush.

 

Regina’s usually perfectly done hair was now all ruffled and sprinkled sparingly with sand and Emma can only imagine the state she’s in herself. She reaches up to tuck one of those flyaway locks of hair behind the princess’s ear and boldly grins up at her captor.

 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

* * *

 

 

Emma’s still on a high from the encounter the next morning, breezing through her chores with haste as she skips school in order to carry out her plan.

 

She takes a bus from Buena Vista to Disney’s theme park and sets about looking for Regina after she sneaks in with a group of high schoolers on a field trip.

 

The parks are huge and she’s bone tired by the time she finishes looking through _one_ with an odd sense of disappointment. As the day wears on and she completes the second and third park, Emma’s very discouraged and only now notices that the sun’s beginning to set.

 

She berates herself, ends up taking the bus back to the group home and gets into trouble when she shows up and there’s a police officer on the front porch of the group home taking a missing person’s report about her. Her social worker also shows up and that’s another round of lecturing for Emma that Casey curiously delivers with such a disappointed mothering tone that Emma's left wallowing in guilt. Her lower lip wobbles pitifully and Casey walks Emma away from the prying eyes of everyone in the home and towards the empty kitchen.

 

She pulls Emma into a hug there, one that startles her, but she sinks gratefully into it as Casey gets her to admit that she went there looking for a girl. Casey hums like she understands exactly why Emma wanted to find the girl and Emma cheeks are flaming and her eyes are a bit teary by the time she pulls away from their hug and Casey gets her to promise that she'd never do something like that ever again. The social worker then gifts her with a new pair of prescription glasses and Emma wipes her eyes and happily tries them on as Casey pats her cheek affectionately and tells her that she looks beautiful.

 

It cheers Emma up considerably and she's not overwhelmed when she gets extra chores for her insolence or her barely there social life privileges revoked as she’s banned from essentially visiting anywhere with or without supervision and threatened with no desert for an entire month.

 

Emma takes it all like a champ, does her extra chores that night and ignores the other teens and younger kids who all send her varying degrees of sympathy.

 

In the dreamworld, she asks Regina where she lives again and gets the same answer about kingdoms and palaces and she rolls her eyes at herself and can’t believe she’d thought for a moment that she could find Regina based on a crazy hunch.

 

“I got punished for…” And here Emma blushes. “I ran away from the home and tried to find you today.”

 

Regina looks slightly alarmed. “You did? Where did you go?”

 

“It doesn’t matter.” Emma mutters. “Clearly you don’t live there, and I was stupid for even trying it in the first place.”

 

Regina blinks at her, a surprised little smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “You were trying to visit me?”

 

Emma shrugs a shoulder. “Yeah.”

 

Regina’s smile dims a little. “Mother rarely lets me have any visitors, let alone people who I call friends.”

 

“What about Dan?” Emma asks.

 

Regina just shakes her head. “He’s our stablehand. He takes care of my Rocinante and my father’s horse Diego.”

 

“At least they don’t punish you when you screw up.”

 

“You’d be surprised.” And the melancholic lilt to her voice has Emma actively seeking out her eyes and threading their fingers together.

 

“I can’t take it Regina.” Emma says ruefully. “I can’t stand them at the home. Parading us all around and giving us false hope that someone would adopt us. I’m going to be eighteen soon. I don’t need their pitying glances or their help, I can take care of myself.”

 

Regina frowns, turning onto her side to look at Emma as they both lay beneath the warm canopy of the apple tree in the meadow. “You sound like you want to run away for good.”

 

“Every single day of my life.”

 

“But how will you survive?”

 

Emma grunts. “Somehow I’ll get by.”

 

“I don’t like that.” Regina says. “You sound so unsure of yourself. And I don’t want you to get hurt.”

 

Emma smiles wryly. “Don’t worry princess, I’m tough. I can handle it.”

 

* * *

 

Within the following weeks a tragic event befalls Casey that Emma wasn't important enough apparently to dignify with a suitable explanation of her absence and she's replaced by the social worker from hell. It only solidifies Emma's resolve to leave and by the time Emma runs away at the age of eighteen a few days later from that last group home, Peter had gone into a wardrobe and accidentally hit his head hard enough to send himself unconscious. They'd rushed him to the hospital where he'd slipped into a coma.

 

* * *

 

 

Emma's first night on the streets scares her. She shoulders her lone backpack and runs from a shady looking group of men who set their eyes on her. She ends up spending the night in a cold alleyway, huddled in a corner, too exhausted physically and mentally to find somewhere more suitable.

 

She curiously doesn’t dream of Regina that night. Or the other nights that follow. And Emma’s already running low on cash she’d stolen from one of the caretaker’s wallets and she’s hungry to the point of exhaustion.

 

A few days later, a guy knocks into Emma on the sidewalk and ends up slipping her backpack from her shoulder. He’d done it so skillfully that she hadn’t even noticed until he was almost a block away before she started to give chase. She follows him into an alleyway and curses when she realizes he’s given her the slip.

 

Slightly panicking as she enters the creepy shadowed cobbled stone path, she notices a car parked towards the back just behind a huge dumpster. It’s unlocked and Emma slips into the driver’s seat and can't believe her luck when she notices the keys still in the ignition. She’s stopped from trying to steal the car from the same stranger who stole her backpack.

 

He introduces himself as Neal, and tells Emma that she can’t steal a car he already stole. It’s a yellow bug, one in mint condition that looks like it belonged to someone rich. But Neal doesn’t tell her exactly where he got it. They form a begrudging alliance at first -- Neal agreeing to take Emma out of this city if they split that box of pastries tucked in her backpack that she’d stolen that morning from a disgruntled street vendor.

 

She agrees and as they leave Buena Vista, Emma feels her old life shedding away from her with every mile that takes them out of the city. It's a new start to a new life and it makes Emma as happy as ever and she doesn’t seem to mind Neal’s company.

 

She dreams of Regina that same night, all warm and toasty in the bug where they’d parked in the parking lot of a twentyfour hour supermarket and excitedly recounts her meeting with Neal Cassidy.

 

Regina isn’t really impressed, especially when she hears that he initially stole from Emma. She tells Emma about Dan, who’s apparently named Daniel. Emma rolls her eyes as Regina practically gushes about the stablehand but she also notices that Regina’s concentration is also a bit off. She keeps glancing around the clearing as if expecting something to occur.

 

They speak for a little while about the little changes in their lives, Emma overlooking Regina’s curious behavior until she begins to fade out hours before she usually tends to leave. She gives Emma a sympathetic little smile and reassures her that she’d be back again.

 

But the dreams of Regina abruptly stop after that and Emma starts doubting their interactions again, wondering at the curious nature behind their meetings. Against her better judgement, she caves and asks Neal if he believes in soulmates or if someone from here can have a soulmate from a place called the Enchanted Forest. He tenses up in the driver's seat a bit too long before he starts laughing uncontrollably. The laughter is a little too sharp and a little too weird for her to take him entirely seriously and her lie detector pings when he says that soulmates do not exist.

 

Her eyes narrow considerably as he inquires as to where she’s heard the name of that place before. She shrugs and tells him of Peter and his bizarre stories in the group home she’d ran away from instead of mentioning Regina, overprotective of this bond she'd formed with the princess that she was reluctant to let anyone judge it. Neal seems even more off when he tells her that he didn’t have a soul creature and he turned out fine and Emma just didn’t bother to sift through his obvious lies or mess with that curiously loaded statement since she didn’t know him well enough.

 

Regina doesn't come that night or the night after that. Emma muses that she could possibly be someone that she had made up or maybe Bagheera had gotten mixed up and linked her to the wrong person. It could happen. A girl named Dorothy in one of her previous foster homes had kept on raving about her soul creature, a puppy she called Toto, who'd led her down a yellow brick road to a girl called Red. Most likely it was made up - Dorothy had only been six at the time and had an odd interest in Disney movies. Most specifically The Wizard of Oz since it was her namesake.  

 

As the days go by she grows even more sadden by Regina's absence and can't help wondering aloud if soul creatures really did lead some people to their soulmates.

 

Neal buys her her favourite drink at Starbucks to get her mind off of the topic of soulmates and she smiles, grateful for the kind gesture when he takes out his own money and actually pays for their drinks. He takes her under his wing after that -- dubbing her too inexperienced to be out in the world on her own. She rolls her eyes at him but decides to stay and they form a fast friendship.

 

Almost a month later Emma finds herself strolling along at Bagheera’s side, taking a twisting forested path that led deeper into the jungle. She side eyes the panther who practically ignores her presence and skips on ahead.

 

Grumbling beneath her breath, she follows closely behind him and gasps when they stumble onto the outskirts of a tiny alcove. There was a small incline of a grassy hill at its side and the trees surrounding the place seemed to curve inwards at their trunks, creating some weirdly cool elaborate twists as their canopies covered the area except for the middle where there was a small patch of sunlight streaming down from above.

 

It was beautiful, incredibly so and it made Emma wonder if all of these places were created by her subconscious and mixed in with her imagination or the real world.

 

“Emma!” Emma’s stomach flips at the happy lilt to her name from a voice she hasn’t heard from in quite a while. She turns and is immediately caught up in that ever present scent of vanilla engulfed in arms that curve around her shoulders and squeeze her so tightly. She grins, presses her nose against soft brunette hair and hugs Regina back with as much fervor.

 

“Regina.” She says, softly, breathless, and the brunette pulls back to look at her, eyes shinning so bright Emma can hardly catch her breath.

 

“It’s wonderful to see you.” Regina smiles, one that reaches her eyes and practically imprints itself on Emma’s heart as they both settle down on the ground like they've become accustomed to doing. “What do you call this?” Regina asks curiously, eyes settling on Emma’s new clothes.

 

Emma sticks out her hands and turns a little, showing her from all sides. “It’s a hoodie.” She states. “See, its got a hood here that you just throw over like this.”

 

“Oh, like a hooded cloak.”

 

And Emma laughs. “You can say that.”

 

Regina’s intrigued by the material that feels soft and silky to the touch as she raises an eyebrow. “It looks and feels quite...exquisite.” Regina settles on. “I imagine it must have cost a fortune.”

 

“Oh it’s definitely expensive.” Emma says, just a tad bit uncomfortably. “The most expensive thing I’ve ever worn if I’m being honest. Neal stole it for me.”

 

“Neal.” Regina murmurs. Emma nods. "The same Neal that almost stole all of your things?”

 

“He’s harmless.”

 

“Do you love him?" Regina asks, an odd note of judgement in her tone. Emma doesn’t really give an answer, just a coy shrug of the shoulder that has Regina jumping to her feet and pacing the length of the bowed trees. It’s a reaction that startles her but she’s also intrigued, especially with the way Regina’s lips press together in a firm tight line.

 

“I mean we’ve known each other for a little over a month now and sure I like him but love is a pretty strong word.”

 

“Has he offered you a home?”

 

Emma avoids her gaze. “Sort of…a movable one.” A stolen car.

 

“Is he pressuring you to give him your virtue?” Regina asks next and Emma’s sure that had she been eating anything, dreamscape or not, she would have choked.

 

“W-what?” She stutters.

 

“Your virtue.” Regina repeats.

 

“I…” Emma pauses, confirming nor denying with an answer which Regina apparently takes as a confirmation.

 

“You’re reckless with your heart Miss Swan.” She says icily.

 

“No I’m not.” Emma immediately rebuts. “He isn’t pressuring me into anything and damn, don’t call me that. Makes me feel like I’m in trouble.”

 

“You most certainly _are_ in trouble.”

 

Emma rolls her eyes. "What about you and _Dan_ anyway?" Regina stops pacing at that, and she actually blushes. Emma’s eyes narrow, that little knot of jealousy in her chest growing tighter as Regina smiles.

 

"He's my friend." Regina murmurs. "My only friend. He taught me a trick a few days ago, one for getting Rocinante to jump over bales of hay."

 

"Oh." Emma says, an odd note of surprise in her tone. “Well, Neal’s my friend too. And he’s great, taught _me_ how to pick locks.”

 

Regina makes a noise at that that sounds like a derisive little snort. “Astounding. Tell me about him.”

 

“Well…” Emma starts. “He’s very...resourceful.”

 

“Is that what you call a professional thief, Miss Swan?”

 

“Stop calling me that.” Emma grumbles.

 

“You didn’t deny his thieving nature. He’s an outlaw, but clearly you prefer that.”

 

And Emma grows defensive. “Hey, people do what they gotta do to get by, stop judging him.”

 

Regina sighs. “Fine, what are his other qualities?”

 

“He’s...funny, oh he likes doing puzzles and taking road trips.” And here Emma smiles. “We have fun together.” And she may or may not revel in the dark look that crosses Regina’s distrusting face.

 

“Be careful who you associate yourself with Emma. From what you’ve told me, something just...doesn’t sit right with me about this Neal. He’s teaching you to be just like him.”

 

Emma rolls her eyes. “You don’t know him like I do and you’re being paranoid, I’ll be fine. Now be a good princess and take me over to that little hill over there to show me that trick _Dan_ taught you when riding your noble steed. We can use Bagheera as our test subject.”

 

* * *

 

Emma’s racing through the trees again, excitement suffusing her chest as she bursts past the treeline and into that now very familiar beautiful meadow littered with multi-coloured flowers.

 

She inhales sharply, always staggering at the sight of the place and the sweet scent that lingers in the air.

 

Directly in the middle of the meadow there’s that apple tree fully in bloom, a cherub pink standing out starkly against the cloudy deep blue of the sky. It's breath-taking and Emma pauses in her stride to observe the way the petals from the flowers dislodge and twirl in the air before landing upon the slightly damp spring grass. It's all so picturesque, but dulls considerably when Emma notices the huddle form of Regina against the base of the tree.

 

She rushes forward at that, heart amping at the way Regina's curled in on herself, knees pulled tight and face pressed against her arms. Her body's shaking and Emma's heart breaks at the sight.

 

She makes sure to make enough noise so as not to startle the crying girl. It doesn't work however, cause Regina startles easily at the gentle touch of Emma's palm against her shoulder.

 

"Hey." Emma says. "What's wrong?"

 

"Hello." Regina mumbles softly. "It's nothing. I'm fine."

 

Emma scoffs. "I'm sure the definition of fine doesn't include crying your eyes out and lying to your friend about the reason why."

 

Regina shrugs off Emma's hand. "Mother and Father have gone to the name day of the baby princess."

 

"Name day…” Emma murmurs. “Oh you mean her birthday! But how come you didn't go with?"

 

"I simply found it unappealing."

 

And Emma's lie detector doesn't have to ping for her to know that's a lie. Regina's done nothing but talk about going to the baby princess's name day ever since her family had been invited.

 

“Like hell you did.”

 

And Regina shakes her head, tilts her face to the side when Emma ducks her head in response to catch her elusive gaze. “It matters not.”

 

“Of course it does.”

 

“Emma, just…can we not talk about it? Please?"

 

And Emma wars with the indecision to push Regina on the matter. She's never been very good at hiding her blunt feelings so she reacts icily. "Sure, I'll let you wallow in your lies."

 

"I'm telling you the truth!" Regina's voice catches on the last word as she raises her head to cut Emma with what Emma supposes is a puppy's version of a glare.

 

But she doesn't have time to pay much attention to it or heckle Regina about it as her eyes zero in on a jagged scar that pinches across the right corner of her upper lip.

 

Emma sucks in a sharp breath at the sight. It's new. Clearly.

 

"How'd that happen?" Emma asks quietly.

 

Regina stiffens, fingers clenching tightly in the springy grass as her lower lip wobbles. "I fell off of Rocinante."

 

"Bullshit." Emma spits, her lie detector pinging so hard she almost growls with the force of her reply.

 

"Emma! Ladies do not swear!"

 

"I don't care! Someone or something hurt you and –”

 

"I told you I fell!"

 

"And I don't believe that! So tell me what really happened."

 

Regina holds her gaze for a few seconds longer, and then promptly breaks down into tears. Emma pulls her into her arms and Regina buries her face against Emma’s neck, the effort to restrain her sobbing causing her entire body to shake as hot tears cover Emma’s shoulder.

 

"Mother." Regina whispers so softly Emma almost misses it with the way it's sighed against her neck. It’s heartbreaking, taking Emma back to memories of some of her awful experiences with her foster mothers. And her heart hurts that Regina's mother would have the audacity to hurt her own daughter like this. It made Emma's blood boil. She didn't know much about family, but she felt that if anyone deserved to be born into one of those perfect forever homes, it was Regina. 

 

"Your mother hurt you?" She asks for verification, trying to contain the quiet rage that shook her own voice considerably.

 

Regina shakes her head. "It was just a little accident."

 

"What kind of ‘just a little accident’ fucking _rips_ someone’s lip open?"

 

Regina flinches at her description and Emma grimaces at her own tactless reply, carding pale fingers through dark hair in apology.

 

" _Magic_." Regina breathes the word with so much contempt that it stuns Emma.

 

It was the third time she'd ever heard someone speak of magic as if it were real. Sure, there was the odd magician or two that she'd come across on television but this reminded her of Ingrid and Peter all over again.

 

She pulls Regina closer, nuzzles her head against soft raven hair and longs to hide her from the cruelness of the world. Magic wasn't real. Regina was likely using it as a substitute for something awful. The experience had likely traumatized her.

 

“Please can we just…” Regina's voice catches heavily in her throat and Emma nods meekly, continues brushing a comforting hand through dark hair and allows Regina’s head to return to the perch on her shoulder. She clears her throat, ignoring the way the breath rushes out of her lungs when Regina snuggles into her embrace.

 

"Y'know, one of my uh, substitute moms thought I had magic once."

 

Regina pulls away, eyes widening comically. "What?"

 

"She...” Emma grimaces. “Tossed me in front of a speeding car to test the theory."

 

“A car?”

 

“ _Jesus_ , where or more appropriately _when_ the hell is this forest place? A car’s basically a…um, like a really fast carriage.”

 

Regina gasps. "Oh Gods, Emma are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

 

And now as warm palms covered her face and dark eyes inspect her intently, Emma’s breathless for an entirely different reason. She swallows dryly, eyes shyly taking in the intense look on Regina's face and can't control the way her cheeks color.

 

She clears her throat a little distractedly, feeling oddly self conscious as she covers one of Regina’s hands with her own, heart racing as she smiles. "I'm okay." She whispers. "But…are you?"

 

At that, Regina's eyes shyly drop from hers along with her hands and Emma curses beneath her breath for eliciting such a reaction. Regina nibbles thoughtfully on her lower lip, brows scrunched as she nods.

 

"Regina." Emma says, a whisper of her name that has the brunette hesitantly looking up at her.

 

"Mother said that she couldn't heal it well. But it was my fault for making her angry. I never should have tried to leave the estate on my own. She didn’t mean it. She just…It'll scar and no one would want me.” Regina abruptly stops here, pulling away a little as she casts her gaze around the clearing. “I’m being utterly juvenile about this.”

 

With every word Regina uttered Emma's blood boiled. It was unfathomable to even think that someone so beautiful would sell themselves short like that.

 

"Hey, look at me." Emma implores and Regina does, lower lip wobbling pitifully as silent tears stream down her face. "Don't cry." She whispers, scooting closer as she reaches out and gently swipes those tears away with the pads of her thumbs.

 

"But she's right." Regina mumbles. “My beauty's my only redeeming quality and I just made it that much harder for her to find me a suitable husband."

 

"No, she's wrong. She shouldn't try to auction you off like...like...chattel!" Emma immediately rebuts. "You're not just beautiful, you’re so much more.”

 

“Emma, that’s sweet but –”

 

“No, Regina. _You’re_ _sweet_ and _kind_ and _so thoughtful_ and you don’t deserve to be treated that way.”

 

Regina ducks her head, but Emma can see the tiny smile curving around her lips that she tries to suppress. It makes her heart race and she has the sudden urge to reach out and hold the girl’s hand. Instead, she nudges Regina’s shoulder playfully.

 

“And no offense princess but your mom sounds like such a goddamn control freak, it’s amazing you turned out so different to the way you described her.”

 

“She’s not all bad.”

 

“Not all good either apparently.”

 

“No.” Regina whispers softly, eyes finally catching Emma’s and holding her there. “May I tell you a secret?”

 

Emma nods. “Sure.”

 

“It may sound juvenile but –”

 

“This is a safe space. I promise.”

 

Regina pauses for a while apparently assessing the sincerity of those words. Emma holds her gaze, giving Regina an encouraging smile but Regina lets out a heavy sigh and shakes her head.

 

“I’m sorry. It’s nothing.”

 

Emma immediately revisits her hand holding plan and just goes for it, curls her fingers between Regina’s and tries her best not to keel over when Regina leans into her and places her head against her shoulder again.

 

“You can tell me anything Regina.”

 

And suddenly there’s a soft sob catching in Regina’s throat and a steady stream of tears that dampens Emma’s shoulder. She idly wonders if it’ll be there when she wakes up.

 

Emma doesn't push her on the matter. She allows her to cry openly, her own fragile heart quivering with sorrow for the princess's pain in return. She doesn’t know how long they stay that way, but it’s a while before Regina finally speaks.

 

“Sometimes…I would like to run away and never return.” Regina admits quietly. It’s something that also hits home for Emma and she finally raises her trembling arms and curls them around Regina's shoulders.

 

“I know what you mean.” Emma says. “I wish I could take you away with me. I'd kick Neal's gassy ass out in a heartbeat just to be able to roam the city with you.”

 

Regina chuckles wetly. “No one has ever said that to me before.”

 

Emma pulls back a bit, tips Regina’s chin and almost can’t breathe when dark melancholic eyes meet hers.

 

“I mean it. I would take you away from all of that if I could. I wish I could.”

 

Regina smiles. It’s soft and beautiful and leaves Emma feeling insanely proud of herself.

 

“You’re my best friend Emma.”

 

There’s a hypnotizing look to dark eyes then as Regina leans forward and brushes her lips softly against Emma’s cheek. It’s with some intense effort that Emma doesn’t pull away when she does it again. But on the next tentative touch of lips against her skin, Emma turns her head and their lips accidentally brush.

 

Bagheera chooses this moment to leap into their joined laps, a soft solid weight that breaks them further apart as he lands, light as a feather against them and catches them so off-guard.

 

It’s a great way to diffuse the sudden tension of the moment as they both break into giggles, something Emma would kick herself for being grateful for later. Regina makes a face at the oversized panther, running her fingers through his fur as Emma does the same.

 

Their eyes catch above the mewling soul creature and it leaves Emma reeling in happiness and affection so deep she knows her cheeks are burning red.

 

And it’s… _something_ . Something _new_ , and _thrilling_ , a shift in their friendship that leaves Emma vibrating with a new kind of energy as Regina shyly ducks her head again and a lock of raven hair covers her face. Emma brushes it away, tucks it behind her ear and can’t stop herself from smiling and smiling.

 

* * *

 

An entire week passes with Emma not seeing Regina. But every day she races towards the clearing, hoping she gets there first to be able to surprise the girl. She slows her pace a little, having been discouraged by the seven consistent days she hasn’t seen her, but when she rounds the tall tree she immediately breaks out into a smile. And all of her troubles and worries over Neal and their current situation of money and selling stolen items just to get by happens to leave her as that familiar feeling of rightness overtakes her chest.

 

Regina’s already there, eyes focused at some point in the distance as her fingers comb lazily through Bagheera’s velvet fur.

 

“Damn you're already here.” Emma says, dropping haphazardly onto the grass next to Regina. “I thought I'd be able to get here first.”

 

Regina turns to her, a slight quirk to the corner of her mouth that makes the scar a little more prominent. She hums, self consciously turning her head away and shyly swiping her tongue along the rigid outline of the new permanent addition to her features.

 

Emma’s eyes are immediately drawn towards her lips, not understanding the flutter of heat against her neck that the innocent action draws.

 

"I met her." Regina says after a few minutes of tentative silence between them.

 

Emma blinks, having lost her concentration at some point or the other as she immediately tears her prying gaze away from Regina’s mouth. "Who?"

 

"The baby princess. I didn’t know who she was and I saved her from falling off of her horse."

 

"O _kay_. Somehow I thought you'd be happier about that."

 

Regina makes a tiny sound of disapproval at that.

 

"Mother has found a h-husband for me."

 

"What?" Emma says, confused at the sudden shift in topic as something plummets in her chest.

 

"I am to wed the King...the baby princess's father.”

 

Emma goes rigid then, curls her shaky fingers into Bagheera’s fur as she asks her next question. “How old is he?”

 

“I…” Regina’s brows furrow. “I don't know specifically but he's been our reigning monarch for close to five decades after assuming the throne a little before his thirtieth name day.”

 

Emma's stunned at the admission and the odd note of disconnection she notices in Regina's voice. And a second later she’s furiously trying to calculate the vast age difference.

 

“Regina what the fuck! That’ll make him almost five times your age!”

 

Regina grimaces, turns away from Emma and removes her hands from Bagheera.

 

“It's of no concern.”

 

“He's an old geezer! How the hell can they force you to marry him?!”

 

“I'm just like her." Regina cries, confusing Emma even further. "I look at her and I, _Gods_ , I _want_ to hurt her."

 

“The princess?”

 

“Yes!”

 

"Regina, you'll never --"

 

Regina actually jumps to her feet. "Yes I will!” She says, eyes dark and stormy and wild in a way that scares Emma. “It's in my veins! Like Mother’s magic, I can feel it, especially in our house. It’s like my room doesn’t have enough oxygen sometimes. I can barely breathe when I’m in there and I know it's because of her magic in the air!"

 

"Listen to me." Emma says calmly, reaching out and catching Regina's hand with hers. She stands then as Regina turns to her, miserable and stricken and Emma's heart _aches._

 

She takes a few tentative steps forward, brings Regina's hand closer and clasps it between her own."You're nothing like her.”

 

“Emma you don't know that.”

 

“Sure I do.”

 

“Emma.”

 

Emma smiles. “I know you. I know your heart princess, and you wouldn’t hurt a fly. You're kind and witty and all kinds of amazing." Emma pauses here as Regina’s eyes find her own, and an intense sort of look steals across her face that makes Emma actually feel her own face burn at the sincerity present in her own voice. She clears her throat a little and shrugs a shoulder as she casts her gaze down to the hand trapped between her palms. “Besides, all things considered, even if you end up in the family business I think you'd make an excellent wizard.”

 

Regina shakes her head, amused and Emma’s proud to note the absence of fear and loathing in dark eyes. “You think you’re so charming, don’t you?”

 

“Just call me Prince Charming.”

 

Regina chuckles and Emma pulls her into a warm embrace and can’t believe how much she wishes they could actually have these conversations in the real world where Emma felt all alone even at the homes when she was constantly surrounded by foster siblings or now as she essentially travels all over the country with Neal.

 

She still doesn’t even know if Regina’s an actual person and for the first time in a long while, her mind ventures to Peter, wondering if his experiences were similar to hers.

 

"Emma?” Regina whispers softly against the crook of her neck. “I don't think I can do this without you...my life is already set to change so much with the baby princess and... _him_ in it.” Emma cringes at the last part of the sentence, hugs Regina closer to her body and longs to help her escape somehow. “Can I count on you to always be here? Answering whenever I call for you?"

 

"Until my last breath." Emma whispers automatically.

 

And Regina laughs. A soft husky sound that wraps itself around Emma’s heart and warms it.

 

“Oh, my very own Lady Knight.” She says, pulling back in playful swooning admiration. “How delightful.”

 

“I swear fealty to you, my princess.” Emma actually does one of those dorky formal bows and they both laugh again.

 

“That’s an oath that bounds us for life, Swan.”

 

“Good, cause I’m not going anywhere.” Emma says and Regina smiles so beautifully as she launches herself into Emma’s arms again and kisses her cheek.

 

They both blush down to the roots of their hair and Regina murmurs a soft goodbye as her form begins to fade. Emma doesn’t exactly know how long she stands in that exact position, a dopey stunned smile playing around her lips as she presses her palm against her heated cheek but it’s a while later when Bagheera’s form also begins to fade and she knows she’s waking up.  

 

* * *

 

 

"Oh I wish we could get to see this apple tree bear fruit." Regina says a few days later when they’re laying in the meadows. "My father taught me how to reap the apples and turn it into a delicious drink, one called cider. Have you ever had it before?"

 

"Nope." Emma says, turning onto her side. "I've had tequila and bloody mary." She muses, reminiscing on the times she broke into her foster families’ liquor cabinets.

 

"Oh, I’ve never heard of those but cider is my most favourite drink, especially the way father prepares it."

 

“You love your father a lot.”

 

Regina smiles, one that reaches her eyes but dims considerably when she speaks. “I do. But sometimes....sometimes I wish he’d defend me against mother.”

 

“You fear her?”

 

“I do not.” Regina rebuts immediately, a tight pull to the corner of her lips that lets Emma know that she’s hit a nerve.

 

“You don’t speak about her much.” Emma says carefully, eyes falling to Regina's scar gifted to her by this woman who clearly didn't deserve the wonderful daughter she'd gotten. Regina hums, shrugs a shoulder and remains oddly silent. “Hey.” Emma reaches out, tentatively placing a hand on her shoulder. “Talk to me."

 

“There’s nothing more to say. I’m fine.”

 

That odd little lie detector talent she has pings at Regina’s words and Emma scoffs. “Yeah okay, try that again, this time without the lie.”

 

“What do you want me to say?” Regina asks a little testily. “That she’s stern and a bit callous? That she sees nothing but this path she has clearly laid out for me? That she controls every little aspect of my life? That her _magic_ makes me -” And here Regina falters, losing the careful hold she has over her composure so suddenly that it stuns Emma when the sudden tears stream down her face.

 

Regina swipes at them gruffly, inhaling the cool sweet air of the meadow and shakes her head.

 

Emma shuffles a little closer, moving up on her elbows to peer down at Regina. “I think you need to at least try to talk about it.”

 

“About what? Mother’s magic? The King she wants me to marry?” Regina hisses. “I’d rather not.”

 

A silence falls between them then, tense and suffocating and it makes Emma’s stomach knot with worry. She keeps glancing over at Regina, desperately hoping that she’d toss her a little reassuring smile but she remains stoic, and tense as if held in place by an invisible force.

 

Emma sighs heavily and decides to spill a little of her own truths.

 

“I’ve never felt like I truly belonged anywhere.” She starts tentatively. “In foster care your perceptions of the world get a little screwy. You could get the most wonderful people in the world and lose them in a year. Or placed with a foster dad who drinks and hands out punishments as easy as breathing with a mom who wishes you don’t exist. So you start believing that you shouldn’t exist too.” She breathes out slowly, glancing over to Regina who’s also staring at her.

 

Emma stares back openly, swallowing thickly as her throat burns when the words leave her mouth. “Every year it got harder to compete with the others at the home and I _hated_ it. There was always someone younger, cuter. They get chosen first and if the rest of us were lucky, we’d get a second glance. I got tired of waiting for someone to choose me. So I ran away.” She finishes with a shaky exhale and almost sobs with relief when Regina opens her arms.

 

Emma immediately falls into them, insanely grateful for Regina’s caring demeanor even when the girl herself needed comforting. So she curls her arms around Regina’s waist and nuzzles her head against Regina’s neck and just _breathes_ , surrounded by that calming vanilla. Regina pulls her closer, brushing a hand through Emma’s unruly mane of blonde curls and Emma sighs, loving the feel of it.

 

“I’m grateful that you exist.” Regina says, softly and sweetly against her ear. “I’d always choose you Emma.” And Emma laughs, amused, grateful and a little choked up as tears burn behind her eyes.

 

“You really know how to charm a girl, princess.” She says wetly and Regina chuckles, squeezing her tightly against her chest before she gasps loudly and sits up.

 

“I know what’ll cheer us up!” Regina says excitedly as Emma finally sits up too and Regina points to something in the distant sprawling meadow.

 

Emma frowns and squints into the bright light, eyes sweeping over the pretty rainbow flowers. “What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?”

 

Regina rolls her eyes and coaxes Emma to her feet. “Come on.” She says, lacing their fingers together. “Let’s go say hello.”

 

“Hello? To who?” Emma blinks, confused as Regina practically drags her through the meadow. As they walk, she notices two moving blurbs in the distance. One white and one black. She stills for a moment as a wild whinny reaches her ear and almost trips over her own feet when Regina takes off at top speed, tugging her impatiently behind.

 

And pretty soon Emma can make out the outline of what’s clearly a horse. Two horses. One as white as snow and the other black with a white patch on his otherwise dark mane.

 

“Come on!” Regina says as she releases her tight hold on Emma's hand and walks over to the dark horse to pat his side. He nickers, loud and proud and she giggles brushing her hands across his sleek black coat. “Oh you’re a majestic fella aren’t you?” She coos and the horse wuffles as if agreeing with her.

 

Emma’s amazed when suddenly without preamble, Regina mounts his bareback with more grace in her movements than she's ever seen a rider display.

 

She looks on over at the white horse who’s carefully watching her, angling his head as if almost in silent encouragement. Swallowing thickly, she takes a few hesitant steps towards him and as if impatient, he meets her halfway, pausing when she approaches with a trembling hand that he snorts at when she tries to touch his muzzle.

 

Emma jumps back in sudden alarm and Regina chuckles from her perch on the dark horse.

 

“Come on Emma. He wants you to ride him.”

 

“How do you know? Did he tell you that?” She shoots back lamely and Regina rolls her eyes.

 

“No, you lovable idiot. I brought them here.”

 

Emma pays no mind to her flaming cheeks that result because of the new nickname, instead, she blinks and shakes her head. “Wait, what?”

 

“Usually when I’m in a mood, I go out for a long ride over our grounds with Rocinante. So while we were both over there being all upset, I was thinking of how much fun it would be if I could take you riding with me. And then…” Regina gestures at the horses. “They suddenly came.”

 

“You wanted to go riding with me?” Emma asks because she’s such a girl and Regina’s coy smile at her question makes her stomach flip pleasantly. Regina shrugs a shoulder. “Sorry but these horses don’t have saddles. I’ve never ridden one without it before.”

 

Regina raises an eyebrow. “They’re bulky contraptions that restrict some of the horse’s natural movements any way, you don’t need one.”

 

“Regina…” Emma says unsurely, blinking up at the distance from the horse to the ground and nervously nibbling on her lower lip.

 

“Come on, querida.” Regina tilts her head to the side, jutting out her lower lip. “Please?”

 

Emma’s really disappointed in herself at how easily that pout makes her give in. She huffs out a nervous laugh as she approaches the horse once more and successfully manages to pat his muzzle. The horse nickers encouragingly and Regina cheers when she clumsily clamors onto his back, shakily grasping onto his beautiful white mane.

 

“See? A perfect white horse for the perfect knight.”

 

Emma’s face colors and as if now kicking in, she squeezes her thighs a little and nudges the horse forward into a slow walk when her brief knowledge about riding horses from one of her previous group homes suddenly saves her from making a total fool of herself.

 

“Now you’re just making fun of me.” She grumbles petulantly. “I feel anything but knightly.”

 

Regina laughs, eyes crinkling cutely with the action as she directs her horse alongside Emma’s.

 

“You can ride horses?” Regina asks as Emma’s posture finally loses that rigid unhelpful tension as she allows herself to relax a little. She side eyes Regina, a little smirk daring to curve at the corner of her lips at Regina's wide eyed intrigue.

 

“I don’t do it often but I know some stuff.”

 

Regina’s eyes light up. “Can we have a little race then? Just towards the apple tree and back here.”

 

Emma raises her eyebrows. “You’re on.”

 

They trot on over to the point where the treeline met the meadow on that side and set their sights on the lengthy stretch of land before them dotted with flowers that led back towards the apple tree with its fluttering apple blossoms twirling like little pink snowflakes in the wind.

 

“You ready, Emma?” Regina asks, fingers curling in her horse’s dark mane.

 

Emma shoots her a cocky grin. “I was born ready princess.” She says. Regina laughs and faces forward, body shifting into a regal poise atop her steed as a smile curls against her lips, making that scar Emma had come to adore more prominent.

 

“On the count of three.” Emma says, turning to face forward as her horse readily obeys. “One...two... _three_!”

 

They both shoot off at the same time, the sound of their horses’ hooves thundering in the silent meadows as they gallop on. Emma’s thighs tremble beneath her as the horse’s entire body shifts over the land and she tries her best to let her body just follow along with the flow of it. She’d forgotten just how invigorating it felt riding a horse, that feeling of the wind in her hair and that fluttering swoop of nervous energy which melted into exhilaration and never seemed to leave her stomach.

 

Emma grins to herself, holding on for dear life as her horse matches the pace of Regina’s and her eyes shift over to the girl who was a sight to behold. Regina’s hair had lost it’s carefully crafted braid and it now spiralled in waves of long dark velvet behind her. The smile on her face was one of pure joy, eyes crinkled cutely as her rounded cheeks was made more prominent by the breathtaking grin that transformed her face.

 

Emma was transfixed, lost in quiet musings as Regina let out a laugh, loud and carefree in a way that Emma had never heard before. She laughs right along with her as they both race across the meadow and Regina tilts her smiling face skywards.

 

Emma could actively feel her heart swooning over the peaceful look that settled over her face -- everything about Regina was beautiful. And Emma’s breath catches when those dark eyes finally reopen and shift over to her, holding her spellbound. Regina smiles at her then, a different kind of smile, one that holds mischievous intent as her eyes sweep over Emma’s frame and settle back on her face. Emma’s cheeks burn and she almost takes a hard dive forward when her horse jerks abruptly just as Regina sends her a flirty little wink.

 

Emma scrambles to sit up properly with Regina’s lilting laughter echoing across the meadow as she thunders on ahead like a majestic goddess, galloping at a speed that Emma was most certain she couldn’t match. The horse beneath Emma jerks again, bringing her out of her haze but Emma was too slow in readjusting her position on his back as he hurtles over a sizable rock. Suddenly her too clammy fingers slip through the horse’s white mane and the momentum of the action sends her tumbling off.

 

She lands hard on her back, getting the wind promptly knocked out of her as she rolls with the force of the impact. She groans, and clutches her head as she finally registers Regina’s frantic yelling of her name and a second later, Regina was jumping off of her horse and running over to her side.

 

“Gods, Emma are you alright?!” Regina asks a little shakily, falling to her knees as she hovers over Emma.

 

Emma hums, a little dizzy from where her head had collided with the ground as she peers up into dark concerned eyes.

 

She grins lopsidedly. “Remind me to never ever challenge you at this again, princess.”

 

“What you lack in basic coordination you make up for in style.” Regina says and Emma laughs as she’s helped to sit up.

 

“Ow.” She groans as her head spins a little. “God, you’d think I’d have practically knocked myself into consciousness with the way my head feels right now.”

 

Regina frowns. “Now your entire sweater’s coated in mud. I should have never asked you to race. I’m so sorry.”

 

“No it’s okay, I could have backed out but my pride wouldn’t have allowed me to.” Emma says gently but winces a moment later when that pain lances through her forehead again. Regina moves forward then, eyes sorrowful as she places her hands against Emma’s cheeks. Emma almost swallows her tongue.

 

“This is a dream, yet you can actually feel that?”

 

“Like a sledgehammer.” Emma grimaces. “Dammit, I may have hit my head hard enough to give myself a concussion.” She muses, wondering at the weirdness to this dreamscape. It felt so real sometimes, especially now when she was in actual pain and Regina’s warm palms were soothingly pressed to the sides of her cheeks, almost gently cupping her jaw and causing Emma’s heart to race against her chest.

 

“That’s it. We’re done with horses.”

 

“No.” Emma immediately rebuts but stills when Regina’s hands simultaneously move to comb through the curls at the nape of her neck. The action feels ticklish and Emma hums contentedly, her eyes heavily falling shut when Regina moves forward. Her thighs practically bracket Emma’s sides as she hovers over her lap, soothingly combing her fingers through Emma’s hair and tenderly rubbing soft patterns against her skull. Emma tips her head back, thoroughly lost in the feeling but she winces when Regina’s fingers probe over a tender area and Regina shakily moves to another spot.

 

“This is all my fault. I’m so sorry.” Regina whispers softly, her voice shaking so much that it alarms Emma.

 

Emma groans, forcing herself out of her blissful haze as she pries her eyes open. “Regina come on, it was just a little accident.”

 

“Why do I ruin everything I touch? What is wrong with me?” Regina asks tearfully.

 

Emma moves forward, brushing their noses together. “I’m fine.” She says softly.

 

Regina’s jaw actually trembles and she pulls away from Emma's face, settling down in Emma’s lap.

 

Emma frowns. “Hey you're not going to cry are you? I'm the one who's in pain here.” She says playfully.

 

Regina whines pitifully, lips pressed tightly together as her sad dark eyes settle magnetically on Emma’s and she shakes her head.

 

Emma pulls her into an embrace, wrapping her arms around Regina’s waist as Regina practically molds herself to Emma’s body, arms curling around Emma’s shoulders. Emma could actively feel those nervous little tremors shaking Regina’s body and Regina’s heart racing against her own chest as she holds her.

 

It was distressing and Emma clings to her desperately, soothingly running her fingers through thick raven hair as Regina presses her face against the crook of her neck. Emma’s heart was tripping over in her chest as that feeling between them pulses warmly within her. It was overwhelming just how right it felt holding Regina like this.

 

Regina seems to calm down a little as she moves her hands back to Emma’s hair, absentmindedly curling her fingers through it and calmly breathing against Emma’s collarbone. Emma has to actually resist the urge to turn her head and bury her face against Regina's soft hair. It's quite the struggle, but she manages, concentrating on that bond that links them as it pleasantly unfurls within her chest as she holds Regina tightly.

 

She startles when Regina shifts a bit and suddenly there was the hesitant bumbling press of a barely there kiss against her neck. She stills, barely daring to breathe as Regina also stills in her lap. Then the kiss came again like the flutter of butterfly wings against her jaw but more pronounced this time.

 

Regina doesn't say anything and neither does Emma as Emma’s hand comes up to shakily cup Regina’s cheek.

 

Regina pulls back a little, a hairsbreadth of space separating them as her eyes sweep up the side of Emma’s face like a heated caress and traps her in dark irises. Emma feels warm all over suddenly, like Regina was the sun and she was caught in her orbit, actively burning up under her stare, especially when Regina leans forward and her lips press softly, lingering far longer than any platonic kiss against Emma’s cheek should.

 

Emma’s eyes flutter shut. This kiss felt more intimate this time, like Regina was still apologizing for what had happened but also that she felt that tug between them that lingers so fervently and threatens to pull them into each other at a moment’s notice.

 

It's a difficult feeling to resist, especially with the heated press of those kisses lingering on Emma’s skin and her eyes open slowly, taking in the breathless candor to Regina’s face. Regina’s eyes were fixated on her own lips and Emma’s hand shakes where it's pressed to Regina’s cheek as her own eyes helplessly draw down towards the lips that were currently making her own heart race.

 

And when Regina’s eyes moved back up towards Emma’s, holding her hostage in what had once again become intense eye contact, Emma abruptly leans forward and kisses her.

 

Emma could barely register anything beyond the roaring of her own blood pounding against her eardrum, the heat that smolders through her veins or the butterflies that felt like obnoxious bats clawing at her insides.

 

It was such a sensual overload, especially when Regina releases a puff of air against her lips seemingly forgetting herself for a moment and kisses her back.

 

Emma’s heart jumps and her shaky arms curve around Regina’s shoulders as they kiss, rendering all other thoughts useless in Emma’s mind. Regina leans forward then and Emma leans back, never once letting their connected mouths part as they sink down into the grassy meadow lost in each other.

 

Kiss after kiss was traded, soft, sweet kisses that gave way to longer more ardent ones that made Emma’s heart lurch at the alluring spell they place her under.

 

Nothing existed for Emma beyond this warm little bubble, beyond those lips that makes her heart quiver with delight. Their innocent kisses evoke so many intense feelings within her that Emma feels her eyes threatening to tear up. Regina’s hands settle almost hesitantly against the rise of Emma’s matted fleece sweater that had ridden up when she laid down and Emma can't control that deep moan against Regina’s mouth when her hands push past the sweater to settle over warm heated skin.

 

Regina makes a tiny sound against her lips in response, one that washes over Emma in waves and has her pulling Regina even closer, loving the feel of Regina’s body pressing into hers like this as her own hands curl in soft dark locks that blanket her like a dark curtain. Their noses brush repeatedly as those gentle kisses seem to grow more ardent and Emma tentatively slips her tongue into Regina's mouth. Regina warmly welcomes the intrusion as Emma's shaky hands find her hips and its with a startling surprise that Emma feels something humming beneath her skin. Something that tugs at her heart and has her stomach in whirls. Something that feels as wild and as untamed as her own heartbeat. It gathers where their lips meet over and over again, a pulse that steadily gains rhythm. Then suddenly there was a brilliant flash of white light beneath Emma’s lashes that manages to startle them both enough that they tear themselves away from each other's lips.

 

Emma finds her vision slightly unfocused as she gazes lovingly at Regina’s face, seemingly just as dazed as Emma felt. But a second later the tranquility of the moment is abruptly broken when Regina pulls back fully and jerkily shoots to her feet.

 

Emma herself is vibrating with a nervous sort of energy but when she finally composes herself enough to smile sheepishly up at the brunette, Regina turns away. Her eyes were darting towards the treeline, to Bagheera’s dark form that now settled down and curled against Emma’s leg, to Emma’s prone position on the dewy grass and finally to Emma’s lips.

 

At the last observation she visibly flinches, takes a step back, chest rising and falling in rapid succession, hands trembling at her sides as she squeezes her eyes shut.

 

“Regina.” Emma whispers into the silence of the forest. It suddenly sounds too loud for the bubble they'd created.

 

“You shouldn’t have done that.” Came the voice Emma adored, no longer soft and reverent but laced with an undertone of steel.

 

Bagheera seems to respond to the tone and the mood and all of a sudden the fur still trapped beneath Emma’s palm bristles and she reluctantly lets him go.

 

Emma frowns, not getting Bagheera's strange mood but pushing it to the back of her mind when Regina finally made hesitant eye contact with her.

 

Emma wanted to argue, to protest, to combat Regina’s insolence on wanting to pin this all on her but the fiery defiance and what looked like actual fear burning through those beautiful obsidian irises makes her pause.

 

 _You kissed me back!_ Her defiant mind shouts but her mouth remains sealed shut.

 

A second later Regina turns on her heel and starts tearing across the clearing again, this time quite possibly even faster than she’d came. Emma was left beneath the tree with the tensed form of Bagheera and a heart that felt twice as heavy in her chest.

 

* * *

 

Emma wakes up the next morning with tingly lips and a racing heart. She adjusts herself in the passenger seat of the bug and a twinge of pain against her lower back makes her pause, considering the dream she'd just had.

 

“You look a little cramped over there.” Neal says, shooting her a crooked smile from the driver’s seat where he’s currently taking them to another state. “But you sleep like the dead so I guess your dreams were good.”

 

Emma smiles wanly at him as he offers her a mediocre meal of dried bread for breakfast.

 

She takes it, her stomach grumbling its approval even as her taste buds protest and she swallows it thickly. Her mind immediately ventures back to her dreams and her face reddens.

 

She’s unable to prevent herself from obsessing over the most amazing kisses she’s ever had in her entire life. She can’t stop thinking about Regina’s breath ghosting across the rise of her cheek or the timidity in her that seemed to slowly fade away as she kissed Emma with those velvet lips that laid waste to every coherent thought Emma had tried to form since the ordeal.

 

Did it count if it was just in her dreams? They’d never once had a talk about soulmates or soul creatures in depth which probably was a sign that Regina wasn't a real life person or if she was, Emma must have really crushed on her to create a fully functional subconscious girl capable of rejecting her.

 

But still those kisses linger, taunting Emma with their beautiful innocence that feel like sunlight upon her heart and some strange wonderful magic that Emma’s sure Regina had also felt.

 

It was crazy just how much she had felt in that instance. Like everything associated with Regina veered on the intense side whether she was happy or sad or angry. And now, as much as Emma’s stomach fluttered and careened over itself because of the kiss, she was also heartbroken.

 

Nothing changed the fact that Regina had ran off, left Emma under that tree with her feelings all over the place. They had to talk about it, talk about just how right those kisses felt and Emma was determined to get the princess to see reason.

 

Except, Regina hadn’t returned – something Emma was secretly panicking over as the days went by and she found herself wandering through a bunch of new never ending mazes with Bagheera. The panther also seemed oddly disappointed with her, despondent in a way that broke Emma’s heart ever further.  It was present in his reluctant steps at her side, his shifty eyed gaze and Emma was sure he’d actually rolled his eyes at her once.

 

And so, she vows that if Regina needs time, she’s going to give her that. She’d distance herself from the princess, give her space if she so desired. But a solid month went by without Regina’s return and Emma’s heart ached like an arrow had pierced her through and through. She missed her terribly.

 

Neal immediately noticed her melancholy.

 

And suddenly he was paying more attention to her. He tried cheering her up, taking her out more. They went on trips to touristy locations within cities. Stole a Polaroid camera and took so many silly photos of each other that they now had an old shoe box in the glove compartment filled with them. Entered restaurants and ordered the best on the menu and then slyly ventured off to the restroom before bolting out of the door. They crashed carnivals and stole clothes but never money. They sold whatever they stole to earn that money. Something they both seemed to appreciate more and hold as an honorable thief's code.

 

It was all so fun and they became inseparable, even if Emma never truly trusted him enough to talk about the girl she still longed for within her dreams.

 

They never talked about their pasts, just casually breezed over the details whenever it was brought up in conversation. They focused on their future and made a goal together that one day they’d own a house in Tallahassee.

 

Neal seemed to understand her in a way Emma was beginning to appreciate and as another few weeks went by and her jumbled feelings for Regina was pushed to the back of her mind, her affection for Neal Cassidy only seemed to grow.

 

* * *

 

That affection seemed to grow so much that when Neal kisses her one day out of the blue -- Emma kisses him back.

 

It was the first of many for them and even though Emma struggles with the comparisons her brain makes to the kisses she’d shared with Regina, she barrels on with Neal. Because this relationship was _real_ . _He_ was _real,_ unlike Regina who didn’t even bother to appear in her dreams anymore or give them a fighting chance.

 

And within three days of this new shift between them, Neal was already telling her that he loves her, that he wants her and Emma _loves_ the feeling it gives her. That feeling was her weakness and he knew it. Knew from his own experience that the orphan within her yearned for someone to want her. And she gets caught up in it all, gives herself to him willingly in an attempt to show him her appreciation.

 

Emma couldn’t necessarily utter _those_ words back to him, clamming up every single time she tried as her heart lurched painfully, thinking about Regina. But Neal seems over the moon that she reciprocated some of his feelings. It was a sort of whirlwind romance that lasted for a few weeks, distracting her from dealing with how intense she seemed to take Regina's sudden absence in her life before everything came crashing down around them.

 

And soon, Emma was once again left all alone with nothing but her thoughts, feeling her heart raw and exposed to the world and helpless to do anything about it.

 

* * *

 

 

A few days later Bagheera leads her into that meadow again. That stupid meadow with it’s stupid almost fairytale-like memories and stupid happy laughter that now makes her all teary eyed. She abruptly scrubs the tears from off of her face, walks over to the base of the massive tree and plops herself down onto a log, feet wide apart in the always springy grass.

 

Her lungs fill with the sweet scent of flowers that make those tears threaten her already fragile composure but she resists. She hasn’t seen this place in so long and she marvels at herself for finally being able to find her way back here.

 

She allows herself to appreciate her surroundings -- how the light seems to teem with an air of magic as those butterflies with all the colors of the rainbow flutter wildly around, perching in flowers of equally rare colors. How the very earth itself buzzes with joy, with life as those apple blossoms curl and flutter in the wind and how Bagheera tilts his head in the middle of them, a silent statue in the distance, peering down _at a white swan_.

 

Emma gasps at the sight of Odette and pretty soon that calming scent of vanilla floods her senses and she just  _shatters_.

 

She raises trembling hands to her face and presses them over her eyes and can’t stop the deep keening sobs from tearing out of her throat as that _feeling_ in her chest pulls harsh and tight. And its strange that it's more pronounced now, almost like an invisible link or a rope, tugging at her heart, and she _knows_ Regina’s walking towards her and can’t for the life of her seem to will herself to face her.

 

Regina takes a seat at the furthest point on the log and Emma hears her abruptly clear her throat.

 

And she’s not proud about it but she forces herself away from the dream and back into the real world, waking up with clammy hands and a racing heart and real tears on her face as she stares at the ceiling from the little cot in her jail cell.

 

* * *

 

Emma runs away the next time she feels that tug in her chest that tells her Regina’s nearby. She doesn’t follow Bagheera into the meadow he seems to eagerly want to take her to and she wakes up again and doesn’t go back to sleep until it’s midday and she’s done her rounds of chores she had been assigned.

 

* * *

 

The next time Bagheera stubbornly leads her into the meadow, she begrudgingly sits herself down upon the log. And no sooner had she done that had Regina appeared and sat on the same log, still as far away from her as she can manage.

 

It leaves Emma so annoyed. Especially when she gives in to her desires and glances at Regina and notices those helpless tears slipping down her face even as Regina glares at her.

 

 _Glares_ at her.

 

And that’s _it_ . Emma’s had _enough_ . How _dare_ she be angry with her when _she_ was the one who left? _She_ ran away, not Emma.

 

“Why the hell are you angry?” She almost hisses and Regina tilts her head and scoffs and Emma’s downright annoyed that she can look so beautiful in another of those leather pants and riding coat combos even when she was all teary eyed and red faced from crying.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, you’re finally speaking to me?” She grumbles and Emma laughs, sharp and stilted and _cannot believe_ Regina.

 

“My bad, don’t want to make you run away again.”

 

“You knew I was betrothed to the King. You knew that, yet you kissed me!” Regina hisses.

 

"You kissed me back!" Emma swipes pitifully at her falling tears. "Then you ran away!"

 

“I panicked! What the hell was I supposed to do?!”

 

“How about freaking _talk_ to me? You didn’t have to run away!” Emma almost yells with the force of her reply and Regina rolls her eyes and scoots a little closer, that angry little tilt to her lips making her scar stand out and Emma’s _irked_ that she finds her so irresistible.

 

“I’m sorry! Okay! Yes, _Gods_ , I ran! But I’m sorry! I’m here! And -”

 

“That’s not _good_ enough!” Emma yells this time -- and promptly breaks down into a sobbing mess.

 

"Emma.” Regina’s voice trembles and Emma’s slightly happy about it, that she’s not the only rattled one here, losing her composure and crying her eyes out over some dream person. “I-I'm most sorry for running away." She says, soft and sorrowful and Emma grits her teeth and removes her palms from her face and stares into those devastatingly beautiful eyes that seem to make her hurt even more than Neal’s betrayal.

 

"Why'd you only come back this week, huh?  Why now?" Emma says, steel lacing her tone.

 

"I..." Regina swallows hard. "I wanted to see you.” She says softly. “I _needed_ to see you. And I’d have come back sooner but I think Mother had something to do with my lengthy absence.”  She says, hesitantly shuffling along the log as Emma scoots further away.

 

And with just that sentence alone, Emma feels her heart yearning for Regina. Beating itself numb against her chest as if one touch from her could release it from it’s confines against her ribcage. It’s utterly unhelpful, and Emma, Emma's an idiot. She tears her gaze away, reluctant to give in to her desires so easily and cannot believe these pregnancy hormones were making her so emotional already...or maybe that was the dreamscape...or maybe it was just that look in Regina’s eyes. She grumbles at herself.

 

“That’s not a good enough excuse, Regina.”

 

“Emma _please_.” Regina cries, hesitantly reaching out to touch Emma’s shoulder. Emma flinches at the touch and Regina pulls her hand away.

 

“I know your mom’s messed up and I believe you when you say that she probably did some crazy voodoo shit, but I’m pretty sure she couldn’t have conveniently decided to lock you away the moment we kissed, so that’s on you.”

 

“Emma I--”

 

“And don’t worry about me. My feelings aren’t hurt.” She grimaces at her tone and the clear lie they present as she smiles wanly at Regina, the tears blatantly contradicting her words. “I moved on.”

 

“Well I haven’t.” Regina says, soft and broken and Emma's traitorous heart flutters at the confession. "How can I with what I did to you?"

 

Emma chuckles ruefully, swiping those damming tears away and regrets everything in her life. But most of all, she regrets getting involved with Neal and sleeping with him that one time before he basically screwed her over, in more ways than one.

 

A sob catches painfully in her throat and Regina braves the wrath of her ire and pulls her into a sideways hug. Emma sobs harder as she snuggles into her embrace, breathing in that heavenly comforting scent of exotic vanilla that seems to cling to Regina's skin.

 

"I'm so sorry." Emma chokes out.

 

"It's not your fault we've been apart." Regina says, her own voice catching painfully in her throat.

 

"But maybe it is." Emma admits quietly.

 

"What does that mean?"

 

"Regina, I hadn't seen you for months, I, I still didn't think you were real I mean -"

 

"Of course I'm real!" Regina immediately rebuts, tipping Emma’s chin up so she can peer into tearful green eyes. “Please believe me. I’m sorry for hurting you.”

 

"I know, and I do." Emma says shakily and she really tries to allow herself to believe it this time. She smiles, soft and wobbly and her eyes shimmer with tears that spill down her cheeks. "But I’m _mad_ at you. I didn't want to see you anymore."

 

Regina can't meet her gaze at that. “I admit that I deserve that.”

 

“You left. Just like that. You didn’t bother to come back and I -- I didn’t know what to do. I...everyone ends up leaving me and I just...I _can’t_ take it anymore...”

 

"I was mad at you too...for kissing me. But then I was also mad at myself because I was afraid of how I felt." Regina says, finally meeting Emma's tearful green eyes. "You're all I’ve been able to think about." And Emma can barely respond to that coherently as her shaky hand curls against Regina's coat, willing her to continue. Regina smiles a little and does. "At first I didn't understand why I always felt everything so intensely when I thought about you. Or the way you make me feel. But now I do."

 

"H-How do I make you feel?" Emma asks quietly as Regina's eyes drop to her lips and her cheeks burn as those eyes seem to shimmer with that warm dark amber that makes Emma's heart sigh with delight.

 

"You make me feel safe, like I can be myself with you. Like I'm more than my status and you care about me even when you make light fun of my title or my puffy dresses. Like you'd stick around no matter what because you're loyal to a fault and so perfectly charming that my heart aches when I'm not with you. Like..." Regina pauses here and Emma curiously holds her breath. "Like all of this is simply my long winded way of admitting that I think I may be falling in love with you, Emma Swan."

 

“Regina.” Emma whispers hoarsely, placing a hand against Regina's equally tearstained cheek. That bond between them has her heart in sporadic whirls that threatens Emma's already fragile composure. She felt those words intimately, curiously tongue tied as she smiles at Regina, feeling that ache in her heart slowly mending itself.

 

"And I’m convinced that there’s a reason we’ve been able to meet here, like this. You make me want to beat fate.” Regina chuckles wetly as Emma's thumb affectionately brushes those tears away. “Or at least, to defy mine."

 

"Oh you do know how to woo a girl, princess." Emma finally finds her voice to say and she laughs heartily when Regina's cheeks color. 

 

"But I’m still betrothed to the King who’s set to….claim me within the span of a couple of months at the very least.”

 

“That fucking old geezer.”

 

“Indeed.”

 

“This is so messed up.” Emma grumbles, despairing over just how much she longed for Regina to completely be in her life.

 

“I don’t know what to do Emma. But I can’t lose you.” Regina whispers softly as she tilts her head and places a gentle kiss against Emma’s palm. And that fluttering returns to Emma’s stomach with full force.

 

Emma prays that this girl was real, that they'd find each other someday. It was amazing how attached they’d become within the span of a couple of months. She smiles, presses their foreheads together and can barely breathe at the warmth mirrored back in Regina’s eyes. Regina admitted that she was falling in love with her and Emma, Emma can now admit to herself that perhaps she was falling too. She had to be. These feelings for Regina surpassed the simple affection she still held in her heart for the memory of Neal by leaps and bounds.

 

It felt giant and scary.

 

It felt a lot like love.

 

Emma swallows thickly as they both stare at each other. She can barely notice anything beyond the warm splash of sunlight that dances across silky raven hair, dapples across olive toned cheeks and highlights those soft full lips. Her heart flutters then, remembering just how wonderful they felt against hers.

 

"E-Emma?" Regina stutters her name and Emma leans back a little, eyes quietly drawn to hers."Are you going to try to kiss me again?" Regina composes herself enough to ask. The words have Emma’s heart racing against her chest.

 

"I..." She stammers, uncharacteristically at a loss when her quick wit fails her. “Will you run away again?” She asks instead.

 

Regina leans forward, curls a warm palm against the nape of her neck and smiles softly. “I could never leave you.”

 

“Please don’t say those words and then end up leaving again.” Emma says, eyes frantically searching dark ones. “I’m not sure i’d be able to take it.”

 

“I promise you, querida. I’ll be here.”

 

Emma smiles, the words like a soft prayer of reassurance wrapping itself in warm layers around her heart. She leans forward then and kisses Regina, a soft press of lips laced with so much gentleness and affection she could barely breathe at it. Especially when Regina lets out a quiet sigh against her mouth that sounds like an awed little _oh_ , and kisses her back.

 

Emma’s shaky hand reaches up to curl around Regina’s making tentative contact as her thumbs sweep along the inside of Regina’s wrist. Her hands seem to take on a life of their own then, moving steadily down to that little dip at Regina’s elbows as Regina herself moves forward, tilting her head and humming into Emma’s mouth.

 

Emma folds at the feel of it, at the delicate way Regina’s tongue curls against hers, demure, soft and so absolutely wonderful. It makes her feel wild, suddenly wanting to press Regina back against something and kiss her with everything she has. It’s nothing like Neal, absolutely nothing. It’s better somehow. Makes her heart ache ten times worse but feel ten times as light and she almost can’t will her eyes to stop tearing up with how much her body seems to _shake_ at the feel of those kisses.

 

She feels wanted, loved and all round joyous and can't contain her happy sigh as that _feeling_ , that gentle cloak of probably magic, she muses, descends upon them.

 

Their lips break apart for a moment as their eyes meet and before Emma can feel self conscious at the red heated flush burning a noticeable pathway across her cheeks, Regina surges forward this time, mouth hot against Emma’s.

 

Emma groans at the new intense look to those dark eyes and the intensity of this kiss. So different to their firsts. She grasps firmly onto Regina’s biceps, steadying herself to ensure that they both don’t end up ungracefully toppling over the log they’re sitting on.

 

Regina’s hand at the base of her neck curls roughly in her hair and Emma loses herself in the sensations, in the feelings that bloom against her chest and feel so vast between them. Regina seems to be a little perturbed by her own intense reaction and she pulls back a little, kissing Emma shyly on the lips before fully pulling away.

 

“I have something to tell you.” Emma says, pressing one last kiss to soft lips before she pulls back to observe the quiet curiosity and wonder in dark eyes. "I...” _Got myself knocked up and imprisoned because you were right and Neal screwed me over and you’re a surprisingly good judge of character, princess_ her mind helpfully supplies. She rolls her eyes at herself and goes with the first part of the confession. “I'm pregnant." She admits quietly.

 

Bagheera coos, curling in at her side as he senses her distress and she smiles wanly, smoothing down the dark fur on his back.

 

Regina doesn't react right away, but when she does it's with wide searching eyes that make Emma feel like she's betrayed her trust and that pretty looking swan she calls Odette suddenly flies over the clearing to perch on her shoulder.

 

Regina barely shifts on the log, just moves enough to brush a hand along Odette's feathered wing before the swan is flying off again.

 

It leaves Emma a bit panicked.

 

“Regina?” She says, a slight quiver to her voice that she was sure the other girl could hear.

 

Regina looks up at her then, reaches out and touches Emma's hand. Emma's so grateful for the contact that she latches onto it, grasps Regina's hand between both of her own.

 

“Was this your decision?” Regina asks, so softly that Emma nearly misses the words.

 

“I…” She starts but stops herself from even trying to lie about it. “No. Not necessarily.” She admits quietly. “But I did make the decision to sleep with Neal.”

 

“I see.”

 

And Emma decides to tell her what happened. Everything that had transpired with Neal. How he made her feel so wanted, how she was actively trying to forget Regina, the fact that they were practically living in the bug, constantly roaming the streets. How close they'd gotten. That Emma hadn’t had a warm meal or fresh clothes until she’d gotten incarcerated about two weeks ago for Neal’s shady job that he’d let her take the fall for.

 

It had all just come sprawling out of her and by the time Emma finishes she’s overwhelmed with tears again and can’t exactly hold in her shaky sobs any longer.

 

Regina silently looks at her, seemingly a bit overwhelmed herself but Emma’s a bit unsettled by her lack of reaction.

 

“Regina?” She murmurs quietly and Regina launches into her arms and hugs her so fiercely that Emma’s heart beats its relief against her chest and she can’t stop the tears that sting her eyes.

 

“I’m so sorry, _querida_.” Regina whispers wetly against her neck, her own voice shaking with such sadness, with remorse, with so much love for Emma herself. Emma clings to her as they envelop each other and not for the first time she wishes that she could hug Regina out there in the real world. “I was just a little shocked, that’s all. It made me realize just how different our worlds are.”

 

“Our worlds.” Emma says, sniffling a little as her voice comes out husky with tears. “So you think about that too huh? That we can’t possibly be from the same world...or time period.”

 

“I honestly don’t know what to think, Emma.” Regina says ruefully. “I’ve never met anyone like you before. The way you speak, your mannerisms, the way you dress, they’re very different from what I’ve grown to know as normal. And I’m not saying that to belittle you in any way.” Regina pulls back a little to place a warm hand against Emma’s cheek. “I adore you.” She admits quietly and Emma’s heart warms considerably at the declaration. “And allow me to be a little hypocritical in my assessment but this Neal character deserves to suffer the worst imaginable fate for doing this to you and then abandoning you.”

 

“He left me.” Emma murmurs, a sharp self deprecating laugh falling from her lips as more tears cover her face. “Everyone seems to do that eventually.”

 

“Shh, querida, don’t cry.” Regina whispers softly, tenderly brushing away the fresh tears with the pads of her thumb. “I’ll be here to help you through this in whatever little way I can.”

 

Emma’s lower lip wobbles pitifully at the sincerity to Regina’s words. “You don’t know how much that means to me, princess.” She says tearfully. “Thank you.”

 

* * *

 

 

The following months do little in helping the hope that dwindles within Emma’s heart -- Neal was never coming to see her or bail her out. And Emma’s begins to realizes that she’s likely going to have the kid in jail, a factor she’s obsessively worrying over. She was only a few months into this and she was already screwing up the kid’s life.

 

Another surprise comes when her pregnancy actually starts showing in the dreamscape too. She gets a small bump, something Regina cooes and awes over, after promising to help raise the child.

 

Emma admires her naïve outlook on the world, how she thought that it would be so simple for them to raise a kid together. She couldn’t burst that bubble for her, couldn’t subject Regina to the ills of the world and the harsh truths of reality.

 

Regina surprises her a few days later by getting them back to a waterfall they had visited so long ago. Emma’s still entranced by the sight of it, by the way the waters ripple and curl as it pours from such a great distance to pool with such amazing force into the river below. They move to the edge where the green grass dips into the river bed and Emma sits down, slipping her feet into the water as Bagheera curls in at her side.

 

Regina slips in right behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist and placing her chin against Emma's shoulder as Emma leans into her.

 

"Have you thought about what you’re going to do about the little one?” Regina asks softly. Emma immediately tenses up.

 

“I have.” She admits quietly. “But I’m still not sure if I’m ready for this. I mean I still have a couple of months left to think about it but right now.” She shakes her head.

 

“I’m sorry for bringing it up.” Regina says, placing a gentle kiss against blonde curls. “But you have to think about it soon.”

 

“And you’ve been invited to your own wedding that’ll take place within a week.” Emma says and Regina immediately stiffens. “We both have things we don’t really wanna think about.”

 

“Indeed.” Regina sighs heavily, combing a hand idly through Emma’s hair.

 

“But tell the stable boy he has my sincerest gratitude for coming up with that plan to help you run away today. As long as he doesn't try any funny business you both have my blessings. ”

 

Regina chuckles. “Oh what a relief, I was afraid you could stop us.” She mocks playfully.

 

“Oh whatever. I can't be there to help you fight off the royal guards and whoever the hell they may end up sending at you. So please just be careful.”

 

“Daniel's skilled with a sword.”

 

“A courageous stable boy, didn't see that plot twist coming.”

 

Regina swats at her shoulder. “Stop mocking him.”

 

Emma laughs. “Okay you're right, I'm sorry. I'm just really bummed that I can't be your knight in shining armor.”

 

Regina smiles and presses a kiss to her shoulder. “We'll be fine, he'll be here soon and I'll let you know what happens every step of the way.”

 

“Hey, what’s your favourite color?”

 

“How random.” Regina says as Emma twists her head to look at her. “Where did that come from?”

 

“I don’t know.” Emma shrugs. “I was just thinking that I don’t know what my girlfriend’s favourite color was.”

 

Regina looks directly back at her then, eyes gently sweeping over her like a physical caress. Emma fought the inevitable blush she knew was coming, just being around Regina made her feel so… _nervous_ sometimes. She swallows dryly, shyly holding what had turned into intense eye contact with Regina as she fought the girly urge to look away and smile.

 

“What?” Emma asks, somewhat coyly. “How long does someone need to choose a favourite color?”

 

Regina raises an eyebrow. “Oh, I know what it is.”

 

“Then tell me.”

 

Regina takes a deep breath then lets it out with a gentle sigh.

 

“It’s green.”

 

“Green?” Emma makes a face.

 

“Yes.” Regina says, a little offended at Emma's expression.

 

Emma scoffs. “That’s boring!”

 

“It is not. It’s quite lovely.”

 

“It’s too common.”

 

“It's the color of your eyes you lovable idiot.”

 

“Oh.” Emma says, suddenly at a loss for words as her cheeks color.

 

Regina also blushes too, but covers it with a dainty little roll of her eyes. “What is _your_ favourite color oh knight of mine?”

 

And Emma smiles as she pecks Regina cutely on the cheek. “Yellow.”

 

“And what’s so great about yellow?”

 

 _The bug_ Emma’s brain automatically supplied. But she couldn’t fathom how to even explain that to Regina so she just shrugged. “Sunshine, leaves in the fall. It’s a cool color.”

 

“And green isn’t?”

 

Emma nibbles thoughtfully on her lower lip, pretending to think it over for a moment. “I guess you have all the cool colors. Yellow, red, blue, black, hell even white, and then you have green, wayyyyyy at the bottom of the list.”

 

“That’s your list.” Regina replies. “Which isn’t a very good one.”

 

“Well, yellow's high on the list because it's great. Who doesn't love the warmth of the sun? And yellow butterflies? Or that glow from your smile?”

 

And Regina rolls her eyes but smiles nonetheless, wide and toothy and Emma can't seem to resist the allure of it.

 

“There it is.” Emma sighs blissfully. “Warm like the sun.”

 

They banter back and forth over superior colors and all too soon Regina’s name starts echoing around the clearing.

 

It was that voice again, the voice of _Dan_ , soft and soothing but a little panicked. It actually makes Regina smile. Emma rolls her eyes.

 

“Does he sleep in your bed now?" Emma retorts cattily, glaring up through the trees as Regina's name echoes across the clearing again.

 

Regina laughs, a soft lilting sound that makes Emma's stomach flip pleasantly when it's accompanied with a playful eye roll.

 

"I’ve actually been asleep since midday. Been waiting for him at the stables since mother's supposed to be out of town on business."

 

"No way, you're asleep in the middle of the day?”

 

Regina hums, playfully twisting the golden curls trapped between her fingers as she smiles sweetly at Emma. “We were out on a picnic this morning beneath my father’s apple tree. So instead of waiting for him out there I went back to the stables to brush Rocinante. And clearly cause I wanted to visit you again.”

 

“Hmm, I’m pretty sure it’s the middle of the night here." Emma frowns. "I guess this means you're probably half way across the world huh, why is he already calling you if you literally just went to sleep?"

 

"Oh, no it's been quite a few hours. I imagine it's almost suppertime now. Actually, he'd only be calling me this early if -"

 

"Regina wake up this instant!" Another voice, stern and sharp like knives cuts through the tranquility they'd created together. Emma feels the exact moment Regina tenses up against her, the smile slipping from her face. Regina whispers  _mother_ beneath her breath and Emma's own heart drops with the way that deep seated fear shows on Regina's face.

 

Bagheera's fur's immediately bristling, tension running off of him and Regina in waves that leave Emma feeling weary and nauseous herself.

 

And then Regina abruptly begins to fade, a melancholic smile playing across her lips as she presses her forehead against Emma's.

 

"I'm so sorry. She sounds quite angry with me.” Regina says, soft and heart-breaking and it feels like the end with the way dread pools in Emma's stomach as Regina kisses her one last time before she’s gone.

 

Emma remains frozen in place for quite a few minutes, hoping beyond all hope that Regina would return to her. That whatever her mother wanted wouldn't be as bad as her instincts were screaming it was. But suddenly, there's a tightening sensation tickling around _her own neck_ and _she can't breathe_.

 

* * *

 

She's immediately thrust out of her dreams and into the real world, a sharp pain slicing through her abdomen like knives and she _knows_ . Knows that something's _wrong_ and she cries out, catching the attention of the guards in the prison.

 

Within a few chaotic minutes they’ve got her on a gurney and her head's spinning so badly and she can't quite catch her breath.

 

She's trembling, pain blooming from her neck to her chest to her swollen abdomen and she's sure she's on the verge of death, clutches the bars of the gurney with tensed pale fingers as pained cries practically tear their way out of her throat.

 

She doesn't realize they've made it to the hospital until the nurses and doctors are making sure she’s moved to a bed and placing an oxygen mask over her face.

 

She hears a far off comment from the doctor as the nurses prep the room and she's saying something about how Emma's already dilating. And Emma panics. The pain is even more intense and she rips the mask from her face and cries out as if now realizing that the pain is from her contractions. She's been having contractions??? They're seemingly even less time apart now and this kid is coming way too quickly and wasn't labor supposed to last a couple of hours???

 

She welcomes a severely premature baby boy into the world less than two hours later. As if announcing his entrance the lights in the room flicker on and off in quick flashes that plunge the entire room into darkness and all of Emma's strength leaves when she hears the first strangled cries of her new born.

 

She cries, tears sliding down pale cheeks that spill messily down her face and she can’t quite contain the emotions that flood her chest when she sees him, all wrinkly and red faced and so utterly perfect it makes her heart ache.

 

She tears her gaze away, stubborn and unwilling to face this new change in her life.

 

* * *

 

Baby boy Swan isn't there when she regains consciousness a few hours later. And it's for the best.

 

She remembers yelling at the nurses who'd insisted she'd hold her baby before even thinking of giving him up. But she steals herself, hardens her heart because she knows, knows that if she's held him even once that it would have been impossible to let go.

 

They tell her that he's hooked up to some machines but he was pulling through well and two adoption requests had already come in.

 

* * *

 

That night she doesn’t dream of anything and Bagheera doesn’t come when she calls for him. The dreamscape she’d created with Regina had become a void, an impossible place to even navigate on her own. And the fear and worry for Regina that consumes her chest almost makes it so difficult to breathe. Bagheera’s really nowhere to be seen and Emma sinks down into the depths of her subconscious mind and tries to find that happiness that had been just a bit tangible in her life a few hours before.

 

She wakes up in the hospital the next morning with a sore body and a sore heart and with the loss of her newborn, her soul creature and Regina, Emma feels more alone than ever.

 

* * *

 

The last she hears of the baby is that he'd been adopted three weeks later by someone out of the state. She's relieved and prays to God for the first time in years that he gets the forever home, the genuine one that comes with a white picket fence, loving parents, grandparents who spoil him and a pet.

 

It’s also the last time she allows herself to fully break down over his existence and just how desperately hollow her heart feels without Regina there and she spends the rest of the day and the following days battling what they inform her is a bout of postpartum depression some new mothers experience.

 

She flinches at the word _mother_ and is inconsolably frustrated with herself. Something she tries to drown by trying out that new workout room the prisoners were allowed to frequent.

 

Reshaping her body gives her something to obsessively ponder over for the remaining four months of her incarceration. Upon her release, she gets the bug and a decent amount of cash obviously left to her by Neal as if that could make up for him essentially abandoning her.

 

* * *

 

The years seem to go by in a blur for Emma. She experiences so much that her views on the world shifts once again. It makes her tougher, if not a little bit jaded and she doubles down on herself and finally manages to get her life together enough to go back to school in order to get her GED. She doesn't make much connections with the people around her, considering them all just a means to an end. People always find a way to disappoint, whether they're dream or real and Emma makes herself more unapproachable, placing invisible walls around her heart.

 

That stint in prison doesn’t allow her to get into the police academy when she tries applies on a whim and she curses stupid Neal and her stupid naive, irresponsible self.

 

She becomes intrigued with essentially a way of fighting crime with a bit of vigilante justice and getting paid in the process and finally becomes a bail bondsperson. It gave her a sense of purpose and with that purpose comes a decent enough income that allows her to move into one of those newly refurbished apartments she’d always admired in the heart of Boston.

 

Emma doesn’t decorate it much, other than painting her bedroom in a lovely light yellow shade that reminds her of sunshine and better days. The rest of the apartment remains a bit impersonal. Her things remain in the boxes she brought them in for quite a while until she actually starts using one draw in the wardrobe that takes up a whole lot of space in her room.

 

And she throws herself into her work with fervor, amassing a decent amount of cash that would even let her go to college if she so desired. She always puts it off and feels inexplicably disappointed in herself and some of her life choices with every passing birthday.

 

Her twenty eighth birthday finds her on another job -- one that rattles her a little when the man drags up her insecurities in one damning sentence: _you’re just an orphan, the hell do you know about family?_

 

Emma curses herself for even supplying him with her ugly truths. This was supposed to be a cover, and usually she’s much more creative with her aliases and the lives she created online for them. But she was feeling especially melancholic about her life and he’d spoken as if he knew how unsuccessful she’d been in tracking down her real family year after year until she’d just given up.

 

Emma buys herself a cupcake on the way home -- that’s as far as she takes this birthday thing lately -- and stumbles ungracefully in her too silent apartment. She lights a candle, sticks it in that cupcake and thinks about baby boy Swan like she does every year.

 

Emma swallows thickly, tells herself he’s in a better place and blows out the candle.

 

It’s quite the surprise when she hears a knock on the door and is suddenly confronted with the appearance of a boy claiming he was that same baby she’d given up ten years ago. She stares at him, lead in her veins, dread in her bones and guilt in her quivering heart and is stunned into silence when he boldly invites himself into her apartment and immediately starts making himself at home.

 

Her eyes drink in his form, from his new jeans to his eerily similar green eyes to his perfectly coiffed hair and her eyes burn and she’s immediately emotional. But she’s a stubborn woman, and remains a bit unconvinced even as she sees Neal’s stupid crooked smile as he smirks at her.

 

“Okay kid, I’m calling the cops.”

 

“And I’ll tell them you kidnapped me.” He retorts smartly.

 

Emma sighs heavily. “And they’ll believe you because I’m your birth mother.”

 

“Yup.”  He says, a devious little smirk playing around his lips and she stares into his tiny face and just _knows_ he wouldn’t give up until she’s agreed to carry him home and changed her entire life.


	2. Chapter 2

"You’ll meet her, she’s very pretty, even though sometimes she’s sad for many days at a time. You’ll see, when she smiles, you’ll love her."  
— Pan’s Labyrinth, Dir. Guillermo del Toro

 

* * *

 

The kid keeps up a steady stream of chatter, clutching a book of fairytales tightly beneath his arm. Emma questions him about it but he brushes her off, says she isn’t ready. It’s a weird comment to say the least, something that strikes Emma as a little troubling but she shrugs and lets it go.

 

It isn’t until they get to a town she isn’t sure exists this far out Maine that the kid tries to give her the slip. He claims that _time is frozen in Storybrooke_ , that _the fairytale characters from the book_ _don’t remember who they really are_ , that _they’re trapped there by the Evil Queen_ and can’t leave because _bad things would happen_.

 

He seems to really believe what he’s saying and that distance Emma’s striving to keep between them by calling him _kid_ seems to be dwindling the more concerned she gets about his well-being. They run into his therapist on the street (and Emma's completely side eyeing Henry now) as the too friendly Dr. Hopper directs her to Henry's home – the Mayor’s house.

 

“You’re the Mayor’s kid?” She asks incredulously. Henry shrugs his tiny shoulders and grumbles disparaging comments about his life in Storybrooke all the way up Mifflin Street.

 

It doesn’t deter Emma, her mind whirring with thoughts that all come tumbling right back to the fact that her kid had landed a Mayor as a parent. She was already calling it a victory in her head, glad that her pray for him to get one of those well equipped forever homes all those years ago had miraculously come true.

 

“I’m sure your parents are worried sick about you.” Emma says as they enter the fancy gates that open into a cobbled stone pathway leading up to a huge sprawling mansion encompassed by hedges.

 

“I don’t have parents, just a Mom and she’s _evil_.”

 

“Evil? That’s a little extreme isn’t it?”

 

“She is. She doesn’t love me, she only pretends to.”  

 

“Kid, I’m sure that’s not true.”

 

“Henry?!” Another voice joins their own and Emma’s heart practically leaps into her throat.

 

It’s familiar and just a tad bit huskier and as she raises her head her entire body freezes as _Henry’s mother_ runs towards him, the worry and relief practically palpable to Emma as she hugs him and buries him in her warm embrace, softly murmuring his name and asking if he’s alright.

 

But Henry isn’t as warm towards her. He practically bristles under her touch, turns his head and Emma can see him visibly shaking. If she wasn’t so tongue tied she’d have probably tried intervening as the kid spits out that he’s _found his real mom_ and makes a mad dash for the mansion.

 

It’s only then that the woman’s dark eyes finally shift to take in the intruder in this little scenario and they sweep over Emma almost like a physical caress. And _it isn’t fair_ because Emma’s already struggling to breathe, struggling with the memories (if she could call them that?) threatening to overwhelm her.

 

The woman shakes her head, a little dazed. “You’re Henry’s birth mother?” She asks.

 

And Emma smiles, a breathless little “Hi.” tumbling from her lips as this impersonator, this suddenly real ghost from her past stands in front of her, staring at her with those wonderful dark eyes that Emma had so adored.

 

The woman Emma knows is Regina shakes her head, purses her lips together and like an utter idiot, Emma thrusts out her hand. "Emma." She says shakily. "Emma Swan."

 

She steels herself, sees the uncertainty (or is that recognition?) playing around in those eyes she knows so intimately that it unnerves her. If the universe wasn't done fucking up her life, then this was the icing on top.

 

Regina lifts an eyebrow, closes her hand around the pale one offered to her and shakes it.

 

"Regina Mills." She says and immediately releases the hand when Emma gasps audibly.

 

They're both tense, studying the other, and Emma’s vaguely wondering what’s tumbling through Regina's mind. Regina gives nothing away, rather, she straightens her posture and like a politician going into battle, she bravely takes the reins of the conversation, forces a non-threatening smile onto her lips and asks softly. "How would you like a glass of the best apple cider you've ever tasted?"

 

Emma gives her a look, vaguely amused as her eyes not so subtly fall from blood red lips _down down down_ Regina's shapely body. It leaves her own body vibrating with a vague kind of heated energy she can't quite name. Emma takes a deep breath, eyes coolly flickering back up to dark ones as she asks. "Got anything stronger?"

 

And that is how Emma Swan is invited into her birth son’s mother’s home.

 

* * *

 

They move into the house, making polite conversation as Regina leads them into her study and proceeds to pour Emma the aforementioned drink.

 

Emma stands in the doorway of the room, feeling massively out of place in the mansion as she tucks her thumbs into the pockets of her jeans. She’s still trapped in the past, and her eyes can't stop drinking in Regina's form and comparing it to that of her dreams.

 

She's got shorter hair now. It's sexier somehow, gives her this professional sort of air that leaves Emma's throat dry and her fingers aching to run themselves through it, knowing the feeling of it would be enough to turn her into an emotional mess.

 

Regina's eyes are more...intense, and when she glances up at Emma through equally dark lashes they seem to pierce right through her soul. Emma constantly has to prevent herself from staring at the woman for longer than politely necessary. It gets even harder when she catches a whiff of that lovely expensive scent of vanilla. It’s faint, but Emma almost can't believe that it’s the same scent she'd always found herself swooning over whenever she interacted with dream Regina. It’s mixed in with some sort of sweet lavender now, but still very much present.

 

Her jaw tightens at her own thoughts. It had to have been real...right? Emma's spent so many of her years writing those encounters with the girl out of her memories and reshaping them that she can't quite remember the order of them or the ones she made up. And up until that point when Regina had come running out of the mansion like some glorious divine intervention into Emma’s life, she’d been convinced that yes, she made the entire thing up.

 

But Regina's here now and she’s _a living breathing person_ so that's gotta count for something.

 

Emma swallows dryly, eyes flicking over the expensive spoils of the mansion. Over fancy art pieces that hung on white walls, the high ceiling with its twinkling chandelier, the ornate decorative mirrors that hung just above the hearth and of course the soft expensive leather couches placed around an equally decorative table littered with what Emma realizes are books on finances and budgeting.

 

Why did Henry even seek her out? Regina’s the entire package. She's smart, successful, runs an entire town and has more than Emma could ever afford to offer him in a lifetime had she kept him.

 

She feels quite inadequate in comparison.

 

“How did he find me?” Emma asks as way of distraction from her depressive thoughts.

 

“No idea.” Regina says. “When I adopted him he was only three weeks old. Records were sealed. I was told the birth mother didn’t want to have any contact.”

 

“You were told right.”

 

It doesn’t really add up. Dream Regina was still eighteen herself that last night Emma had seen her before she’d gone into labor. This woman, dream Regina or not, she adopted Henry right away and she looked at least a few years older than Emma herself….surely she didn't adopt Henry at the tender age of eighteen.

 

“And the father?” Regina asks, her tone deceptively light as she glances over at Emma.

 

“There was one.”

 

“Do I need to be worried about him?”

 

“No, doesn’t even know.”

 

“Do I need to be worried about you, Miss Swan?” Regina says, tongue curling around the weird nickname in such a familiar way that Emma’s hand actually shakes when she takes the drink from her.

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

“He's all tucked in Madam Mayor.” The man who Emma vaguely remembers seeing a glimpse of behind a worried Regina on the porch of the mansion says as he shuffles down the stairs. “Other than being a very tired little boy, he's fine.”

 

Emma finally gets a good look at him, taking in his lanky slightly muscular frame, scruffy beard and attractive face.

 

“Thank you, Sheriff.” Regina says and he tips his head, shuffling past her to _go out on patrol._  The Sheriff’s eyes linger on the Mayor for just a tad bit too long to be mistaken for friendly and Emma stiffens at the look of intimacy that passes between them.

 

Regina leads them further into the room then as they speak about Henry and Emma takes a sip of her cider, desperately trying not to jump to any conclusions about Regina's life. She can't help but note the stiff way Regina sits upon the couch herself, like it was something she rarely did.

 

Where dream Regina was also poised and well mannered, this Regina shares those qualities, but she had none of that naïve softness. She was all sharp edges and stormy eyes, intense in a way that makes Emma so nervous that she can barely think properly or accurately follow along the thread of their current conversation. It was so staggering having this woman here, her face and mannerisms so familiar yet different enough that it's quite daunting.

 

Every night since she gave up the kid Emma spent wandering around her dreamscape. Bagheera no longer frequented them, in fact, the panther's visits to her dreams were so rare now that Emma was sure the whole _soul creature leading you to a soulmate_ thing was just a cruel ideology created to help disillusioned people cope with the real world.

 

So surely she'd dreamt Regina up. Nothing in her current mannerisms suggested she knew Emma at all. Emma decides that either Regina has to genuinely not know who she is, or that Regina's a really talented actress who was just playing Emma, embarrassed at how quickly they'd practically almost fallen for each other and - _no._ Soulmates were _not_ real.

 

And even Emma couldn’t really dream up aspects of this woman’s life accurately. Dream Regina was from some...forest place and was forced to marry some stupid elderly King. This Regina doesn’t even have a ring on her finger. She wasn't a Queen, she was a Mayor of a small town. Or maybe Regina had lied to her about her life? Emma immediately shakes the thought away. She was always able to tell when Regina was lying. She remembers the princess being very easy to read. She didn't have a cruel bone in her body, even faltering at the implication that her mother had hurt her. Her gaze zeroes in on the faint scar on the right corner of Regina's upper lip and she falters considerably, quite confused.

 

Emma grimaces at herself, shoving _those thoughts_ away.

 

"Cider not on par with your usual, Miss Swan?" Regina mistakes the face she makes at her drink for actual disapproval. There’s that weird nickname again and Emma’s memories stir, hearing the echo of young Regina’s voice curling around the words with a bit of a higher more juvenile pitch to her tone.

 

Emma's head jerks up, startled she'd lost herself in quiet musings around this woman. And Regina’s dark eyes are quietly assessing as she gets up to pour herself another drink and Emma's heart is squeezing so tightly in her chest cause this woman is beautiful and _no_ , Emma's not about to ask her about soulmates.

 

"Oh, no, I just," she shakes her head, going in for it anyway. "My soulmate used to love this stuff."

 

Regina freezes where she stands, the glass slipping from her hands and tumbling towards the floor. It breaks apart in tiny crystal shards on the immaculate marbled floor, the sound reverberating through the extensive house like the clang of a giant cymbal.

 

It’s an interesting reaction to say the least.

 

“Clumsy me.” Regina says shakily. And Emma's heart squeezes in her chest at the rattled look on Regina’s face and she forces down the exhilaration that rushes through her body.

 

“You don’t strike me as the clumsy type.” Emma says, an infuriating knowing smile daring to tug at the corner of her lips.

 

Regina straightens her spine, gingerly takes a few steps away from the broken glass. “Perhaps I’m just tired. It has been a rather long day.” She says meaningfully and they both glance up the stairs Henry had bolted up a few minutes ago.

 

Emma smiles, tight and controlled and downs the cider in one shot. She places the empty glass on the table and stands up. “Might as well get out of your hair then.”

 

Regina looks almost on the verge of saying something as her eyes not so subtly flicker over Emma’s entire frame before she almost visibly pulls back. "That would be wise." She settles on and then proceeds to lead Emma towards the foyer and out of the house.

 

“Goodnight.” Emma throws flippantly over her shoulder, feeling the heavy weight of those eyes as they follow her down the stone pathway and out the gate.

 

“Goodnight, Miss Swan.”

 

* * *

 

Emma gets as far as a few feet from the town line before her vision blurs and the fuzzy outline of a wolf makes her swerve the bug to the right. She collides with the town sign and is out as soon as her head bashes against the steering wheel.

 

* * *

 

 

Regina goes to bed late that night, her thoughts about Henry's blonde birthmother and her intentions plaguing her with tumultuous scenarios that all end with her taking him away.

 

And she tries to forget her, to forget this brash unapologetic woman who’d stumbled into her town and spoken to Regina as if she were an old friend. As if they were past acquaintances. It was odd. Especially the way her eyes had softened like if Regina has asked, she’d tell her her deepest darkest secret right off the bat. It was alarming, especially the cool way her eyes had swept over Regina when she’d mentioned her soulmate.

 

Regina she doesn't understand her, had been surprised to hear the Swan woman mention the topic of soulmates -- something taboo in this world that could get you sent to a mental institution.

 

Surely she knew that with the curse, she had been brought to a world that barely believed in soulmates, where magic was a farce and where soul creatures were simply thought of as extensions of one’s self. It was considered rude or even taboo to even speak of the topic. But never had she met someone (or anyone from this world for that matter) who’d professed to meeting their soulmate.

 

The thoughts whirring in her head give her a bit of reprieve when sleep finally claims her but her dreams don’t. They taunt her in the form of a memory, unbidden.

 

_"I can help you find your soulmate." Tinkerbell says, a decisive note to her tone as she sits primly upon that little stool outside of a tavern sprawling with daytime activity._

 

_Regina glances up from her untouched drink, the statement making her stiffen in her seat._

 

_It had already been a few years since Regina's allowed herself to think of that word. And now, sitting here with this naïve fairy who'd saved her from plummeting to her death from Leopold's castle, she feels the helpless rage coil tightly in her stomach. She arches a disbelieving eyebrow, takes a sip of the vile drink the fairy had offered her and swallows it with clear disdain._

 

_"Is this why you rescued me? To dawdle and waste my time?"_

 

_The Fairy rolls her eyes. "I'm being serious."_

 

_Regina stiffens even further. "I don't have a soulmate." She says clearly, evenly._

 

_Tinkerbell scoffs. "Of course you do, everyone does. Even the King did."_

 

 _Regina swallows dryly, eyes caught in shimmering hopeful naive green as_ his  _name whispers across her heart. Except, it feels hollow somehow. And she grimaces, summons all of the pain and hatred she has for Mother and the King and the imp._

 

_And Regina's eyes burn as they fall to the gnarled wooden table, lost in memories of the stable boy who's name she refuses to utter. Refuses to remember. Except, it never leaves her. It's everything she remembers. Everything that keeps her going. Fuels her need for vengeance. The name wraps itself around her heart, delving deeper beneath the surface and lodging itself there. It makes her heart ache, the memories, the name._

 

_Two years had already passed since Regina lost her soul creature, half her heart and half her sanity along with half of the emotions that don't come as easy as breathing anymore._

 

_She looks up at the fairy who's assessing her with cool nonjudgmental eyes._

 

_"I don't have a soulmate." She repeats._

 

_"They told me you'd be difficult." Tinkerbell muses. "The one who lost her soul creature."_

 

_Regina immediately bristles, voice laced with an undertone of steel. "Is that what they call me?" She asks._

 

_"Some do." Tinkerbell admits quietly. "They think it's nothing short of a miracle that you're alive."_

 

Regina wakes with a start, hair messily sticking unevenly to her forehead as she places a hand over her racing heart. It’s the first time she’s dreamt of the old world in quite a while. But she doesn’t allow herself to dwell on it or what it could mean. Instead, she pushes it all to the back of her mind and gets out of bed.

 

She goes down into the kitchen, makes a fresh mug of coffee and then proceeds to start breakfast like any normal weekday. She makes Henry’s favourite -- extra chunky chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate sprinkled with cinnamon. The smell of the pancakes alone is usually enough to rouse him.

 

But when fifteen minutes pass the usual time Henry comes bumbling down the stairs with his grumpy little pout firmly set in place, Regina freezes. She calls his name repeatedly as she sets everything out on the table but no answer comes.

 

Ignoring the intense wave of panic sweeping up her throat, she walks up the stairs and into his room -- and sees his empty bed unmade. She rushes over to the windows in the room which are thrown wide open and notices a bed sheet tied to the window frame hanging limply off of the side of the house.

 

Regina’s never dialed the Sheriff’s station or gotten ready for work faster in her life.

 

* * *

 

She doesn’t get ahold of the Sheriff which immediately pisses her off and she spends the drive over to the station mulling over Henry’s whereabouts.

 

She’s stewing, in worry, in fear, in anger as she thunders along the corridors of the station, heels clicking along tiles as she looks for the Sheriff. She knows it’s early, hell, it’s barely a minute past seven am but she’s a mother on a mission and -- she pauses when she overhears two voices coming from the Sheriff’s office.

 

“ -- and her apple cider is pretty strong.” Graham says.

 

“I told you I wasn’t drunk.” The second voice says. There’s a frustrated bang of fists against the cells. “How the hell did I even end up here?”

 

"You were involved in an accident, took out the town sign with your tiny yellow vehicle."

 

"I'll ignore that petty slight against a 1950s classic VW. But what’s bugging me is that people's usual response to finding a person unconscious in an accident is to take them to the hospital."

 

"It wasn't too serious, patched you up myself.”

 

“Graham, Henry’s run away again we have to –” Regina abruptly stills in the doorway, as she notices Emma Swan. She clenches her fists together, a terrified look stealing across her face that’s masked with indifference a second later as she changes her stride and instead swaggers in. “What’s _she_ doing here? Do you know where he is?” The disdain in her voice is impossible to miss as she directs her attention to the sole prisoner in the room, all traces of last night’s tentative civility gone.

 

The Swan woman's eyes widen slightly, sweeping up from Regina's legs and not so subtly lingering on that modestly unbuttoned part of Regina's blouse. And she doesn't know why her own face burns at the action. The look is blatant enough for even Graham to raise an eyebrow.

 

“Look lady, I haven’t seen him since I dropped him off at your house plus,” Swan tears her gaze away and instead gestures to the cell around her. “I’ve got a pretty good alibi.”

 

"Driving under the influence." Graham supplies unhelpfully. Swan turns to glare at him.

 

"I did not, I told you, I swerved to avoid hitting a wolf."

 

" _Right_."

 

“Well he wasn’t in his room this morning.” Regina sighs, frustrated.

 

“Did you check his friends?”

 

“He doesn’t have any friends, he’s kind of a loner.”

 

A weird look crosses Swan’s face at that. “Every kid has friends.”

 

Regina rolls her eyes and turns to leave. “I don’t have time for this, we should be _doing_ something.”

 

“Wait!” Swan says. “Look, finding people is what I do. Tell ya what, how about you guys let me out and I’ll help find him?” She smiles hopefully, as if expecting the return of the polite Mayor. But Regina glowers in response and a few minutes later she’s walking out of the Sheriff’s station with Henry’s birth mother in tow and a sinking feeling in her chest.

 

* * *

 

Their search of the computer in Henry’s room leads them to discover exactly how he found Swan -- using some seedy website with his teacher Mary Margaret’s credit card.

 

Regina’s absolutely seething with rage by the time she gets to the school with Swan to corner Mary Margaret, who goes off on a rant about Henry being lonely and her giving him a book of fairytales to cope.

 

Mary Margaret has the audacity to tell her she isn't raising her son in the best manner and that pointless conversation has Regina silently livid by the time she leaves the school and instead goes home, worry making her chest constrict. Swan drops him home an hour later and Henry runs past Regina and into the house without so much as a hello.

 

She ignores the crushing feeling in her chest that action evokes and smiles, small and tight from her porch, as she listens to the Swan woman speak about a wish she made on her birthday which made Henry show up.

 

Regina cuts her off, sharply, scathingly. Makes sure that the woman knows just who Henry’s _real_ mom is, who’s been there his entire life since Swan applied for a closed adoption wavering her legal rights and dramatically ends it with a threat of destruction after basically telling her to leave her town.

 

Regina turns, rudely dismissing the woman but freezes when suddenly she’s caught by the wrist in a firm hold. The contact shocks her and she yanks her hand free, turning to glare at the brash Swan woman who’s now standing less than an inch away.

 

“Wait.” Swan says, eyes intense as they stare openly down into Regina’s. Swan seems to wear her heart on her awful red leather clad sleeve, not even a little intimidated by her threats of grandeur...and Regina’s never felt more uncomfortable being the specimen under those green eyes.

 

Regina stands rigidly against the woman, haughtily tips her head and squares her shoulders.

 

“Do you love him?” Swan whispers.

 

And Regina’s taken off guard once again, the look coupled with the tone supplying an echo of that very same question in her head. She can’t exactly place whether she’s heard it or said it before. She blinks rapidly as she tries to shake off that weird intense feeling that passes between them, especially when Swan’s gaze seems to soften further as if she’d reach out and touch Regina again.

 

Regina takes a step back as if the very action would break her.

 

“Of course I love him.” She says, poised, intimidating. “Now get the hell off of my porch.” Regina hisses and turns without preamble, slamming the door shut as Swan stares at her with sadness in her eyes that Regina tries desperately hard to ignore.

 

* * *

 

Regina sits on her bed and trembles, memories plaguing her as she reads the biased script of Henry’s fairytale book painting her in even worse lighting. Giving her the sole motivation to become evil because _Snow White was prettier._

 

The only page that gives her some reprieve from wanting to turn the book into ashes is a page that stuns her. It's a scene from the stables, right when Cora came in and ended Daniel and Odette's lives.

 

Regina and Daniel are pictured kneeling on strewn hay, clutching onto each other. Daniel's face one of pained agony as Cora towers behind them holding a pulsing white heart in her hands.

 

The white heart’s something that amazes her, having never seen anything like it in her life. She's unsure of exactly what it means, but the maniacal look in Cora's wide eyes is enough to make her swallow uneasily.

 

Regina's eyes flutter shut as she remembers the sweet gentle press of lips at the corner of her mouth before she'd lost him forever. Odette isn't in the picture but there's a white glow to the background that Regina remembers distinctly occurring after she'd been kissed for the last time. She swallows dryly, tracing the contours of Daniel's face as tears pool helplessly in her eyes.

 

 _Love is weakness_ , mother's mantra so ingrained in her mind hisses fiercely and she growls at herself. She pushes those emotions, those thoughts of soulmates to the back of her mind and sifts through the remaining pages of the damming book with such force that she almost sends it clattering to the floor as she comes to the end with several pages torn out.

 

She slams it shut and makes her way to Henry’s room, tossing that cursed book down onto his bed.

 

“The missing pages – where are they?” She asks.

 

Henry glowers. “It’s an old book. Stuff’s missing. Why do you care?”

 

“I care because you think I’m some evil queen. And that hurts me, Henry. I’m your mother.”

 

“No, you’re not.” He immediately rebuts. She’s had a lot of practice with schooling the hurt from showing on her face lately when he says things like that, things that hurt her, but it still leaves her heart aching, wallowing in misery so deep she can barely contain a bit of the frostiness from infiltrating her tone when she speaks to him.

 

“Well, then who is? That woman you brought here? I don’t like what she and this book are doing to you. Thankfully, both are no longer an issue.”

 

The clock in the square begins to chime and Regina turns towards the window, startled and a little pale. Henry takes that time to flee, grabbing his backpack for school and running out the door without so much as a goodbye and Regina can’t help the dread that pools in her stomach.

 

* * *

 

Swan didn’t leave town.

 

On her way to work, Regina finds out that the woman booked a room at Granny’s the night before.

 

It enrages her and she vows to find out just how long the woman would be staying.

 

She'd get this stranger out of her town once and for all and then she can go back to finding her happy ending, just like the dark curse says she would.

 

* * *

 

Focusing on Emma Swan with a sort of contemptuous single mindedness to help her forget about her own problems, Regina finds herself with a basket of apples strutting into Granny's B&B. She gets the woman's information easy enough, the sole visitor to a cursed town, and wonders idly if Swan didn’t find it strange that she's the only one renting a room.

 

She knocks on Swan's door, and almost takes a step back when the door opens to Swan in nothing but a cheap cotton tank top and red panties.

 

She doesn't mean to, but her eyes helplessly drift across the puckered rise of nipples straining against Swan's tank top and _down down down_ those long lean muscular thighs.

 

There's a flutter of heat against her neck and she knows she's been staring longer than completely necessary, showing her blatant appreciation.

 

“See something you like?” Swan smirks. The _nerve_. Regina ignores her comment, drags her gaze back to the apple basket clutched too tightly in her arms and holds out one to the Swan woman with a practiced smile.

 

"Did you know the Honeycrisp tree is the most vigorous and hearty of all apple trees? It can survive temperatures as low as forty below and keep growing. It can weather any storm. I have one that I’ve tended to since I was a little girl and to this day, I have yet to taste anything more delicious than the fruit it offers.” Is a ramble of words she didn’t mean to say. Her face burns when Swan raises an eyebrow, amusement playing around in those green eyes as she takes the apple from Regina's outstretched hand.

 

“Thanks.” Swan says, a little awkwardly.

 

Regina smiles, tight and controlled. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy them on your drive home.”

 

“Actually, I’m going to stay for a while.”

 

Regina’s smile drops. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Henry has enough issues. He doesn’t need you confusing him.”

 

“All due respect, Madam Mayor, the fact that you have now threatened me twice in the last twelve hours makes me want to stay more.”

 

Regina raises an eyebrow. “Since when were apples a threat?”

 

“I can read between the lines.” Swan says and then her eyes soften again, unnervingly so as she shrugs a shoulder and admits to wanting to check up on Henry. As if she even spared him so much as a thought during the last ten years or even tried to find him. As if she were more than just the womb that sustained him for nine months.

 

Regina laughs, too high pitched and too stilted and rages at this woman who’s using Henry’s fairytale obsession as an excuse to stay. Her patience with Swan dwindles. “It’s time for you to go.”

 

“Or what?” Swan asks defiantly.

 

Regina allows herself to take a threatening step forward, eyes boring into intense green. “Don’t underestimate me, Miss Swan. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

 

* * *

 

 

Swan stays longer than Regina would like her to and the weeks that follow their talk at Granny’s B&B only seem to escalate this weird tension brimming between them as they both take shots at each other.

 

It also doesn't help that her dreams have also gotten a bit wonky. She dreams of a baby abandoned within a forest, a small bright eyed girl with golden hair growing up in foster homes and those eyes losing their light as she ages. Regina doesn't know what to make of the dreams, can't even for the life of her focus on what they could mean as a stubborn veil blankets most of the girls features besides her eyes. Green, vibrant and strikingly familiar to Regina. 

 

It makes her uneasy, not being able to place this girl within her memories. So she focuses more on her son to get her mind off of it and with her son's affections steadily growing towards Miss Swan, she focuses on the woman herself.

 

She tells Sidney to run an article in _The Daily Mirror_ about Swan destroying the town sign and gets her kicked out of Granny’s – but the woman ends up moving in with Mary Margaret.

 

Playing on Swan’s concern for Henry, she gets him to think that Swan views him as crazy and gets her falsely accused and arrested for breaking into Henry’s therapist's office to steal his file. It’s made all the more worse when the ordeal only makes the Sheriff seem to believe Swan’s innocence and Henry and his birth mother only grow closer.

 

Everything backfires when Mary Margaret bails Swan out and the woman retaliates by attacking Regina's apple tree with a chainsaw, provoking another few rounds of catty confrontations.

 

It’s begrudgingly that Regina enlists the help of Gold to get rid of Swan and realizes with startling surprise that he possibly knows his true identity. But she has enough to worry about between Henry and Swan’s growing bond and her curse slowly weakening with each passing day. It’s unnerving, and she’s severely distracted by this brash woman.

 

No matter what she seems to do, Swan seems to get the better end of everything and Regina can’t for the life of her seem to do anything other than completely loathe the woman’s existence. Especially when Henry keeps leaving the house early or skipping school to spend time with her.

 

Swan is feisty, and Regina’s even feistier and they bicker and threaten each other, not allowing the other an inch. But there’s always this strange undercurrent of emotions flickering to life within Regina as Swan’s eyes soften and she gets taken out of the argument and helplessly drawn into green irises.

 

It  _irritates_ her.

 

* * *

 

Things get even more complicated when Regina gets called in to the hospital because the John Doe she _found on the side of the road unconscious without any memory of what or who he was_ wakes up and suddenly goes missing.

 

She rushes to the hospital with Graham at her heels, lead in her veins and meets Swan, Mary Margaret and Henry there.

 

Seeing Snow worry over Charming sets her off again and she determinedly leaves, taking Henry home with her and scheming over how to prevent that meeting once and for all.

 

* * *

 

The perfect scheme arrives in the form of Kathryn Nolan, wife to previous coma miracle patient David Nolan and Regina watches gleefully as Snow’s hopes are crushed. Swan isn’t as accepting of the situation -- instead, she challenges Regina on how she was suddenly able to find all of this information about a man who’s been there for years and unknown to his wife.

 

Regina brushes Swan’s concerns off and is content at the misery she’s caused.

 

She celebrates her little victory with the Sheriff, inviting him over to her house to continue their little trysts after Henry goes to bed.

 

But her glee is short lived when later, Graham asks her about making Swan his deputy Sheriff.

 

It’s worrisome -- Swan would stay longer if she accepts the position and Regina rages internally. She offers a subpar retort and brushes him off. But realizes shortly after that he’s serious about it.

 

The very next day an explosion causes a sinkhole to appear at the town’s abandoned mine shaft. She urges the citizens to vacate the area as the Sheriff approaches with Swan as his tag-along seeing as he'd defiantly made her the new deputy. That doesn't sit well with Regina and as they cordon off the area and everyone returns to their jobs, Regina gives Swan's files another cursory examination in her office.

 

Not even a few hours later she gets a call about her son that chills her to the bone. She races back towards the mines as fast as she can, dread pooling in her veins as Swan arrives with Graham and Regina zeroes in on the woman who looks at her with eyes that probably see too much and Regina is immediately on the offense.

 

Regina is beside herself with worry for Henry’s safety, realizing that her blatant discouraging of his little fairytale escapade is what had taken him down into that abandoned mineshaft.

 

She paces the length of the collapsed structure, wondering if indeed she should have trusted him with her past, confirm his accurate theory about the curse, confirm her true identify -- _no_ , he's a very intuitive child, but a child no less and burdening him with her ugly truths would have only made her lose him sooner.

 

Regina clenches her fists as the helplessness of the situation consumes her, and she misses her magic like a missing limb. She blames Henry's therapist for her woes, barks orders to the workers clearing away the debris and keeps snipping at Swan as she oversees the events. Everyone else is walking on eggshells around her as they desperately try to get Henry and his therapist out of the mines but the one seemingly sharing her intense worry is Swan who’s peering down into the dusty cob webbed air shaft after they'd just gotten the crane to pull a grate off of it.

 

"You need to lower someone straight down." Marco says, indicating the unstable sides of the shaft that would collapse if they weren't careful.

 

Regina's mind is a whir of scenarios that all involve her unconscious son's body being buried beneath that pile of rubble and she peers woefully down into the shaft as they all talk around her about carefully lowering someone straight down into it. Graham brings a harness and Regina immediately summons her courage. She wasn't going to lose Henry today.

 

"Lower me down." She says impatiently and the deputy immediately cuts in.

 

"Oh, no way. I’m going."

 

Regina's eyes immediately find hers, boring into the Swan woman with an intensity that _begs_ her to understand. "He’s my son."

 

The deputy sighs heavily. "He’s my son, too. You’ve been sitting behind a desk for ten years. I can do this."

 

Regina takes a step towards her, something in Swan's abnormally intriguingly sincere green eyes drawing her in. "Just bring him to me." She whispers softly, reluctantly.

 

The staring lasts a few seconds longer between them and Regina isn't exactly sure but something _tugs_ in her chest, especially when the woman's eyes settle magnetically on her lips. It's insane how her breath hitches over it and the woman smiles, soft and breathless like she feels it too. Swan nods a bit jerkily as if startled out of her thoughts and turns away to continue adjusting the harness, releasing Regina from the magnetic hold of her eyes.

 

Regina immediately turns away, not dwell on the strange vestiges of what feels like some sort of connection brimming between them. She inserts herself at Graham's side, anxiously watching on as Swan lowers herself down into the dark abyss.

 

Graham keeps whispering reassuring words that have little to no effect on the worry eating at Regina and she begins pacing again, eyes helplessly peering down into the half illuminated air shaft that tapers off into a dark hole. What feels like a century to Regina but is really a few tensed minutes later, Swan emerges with Henry and Regina’s overwhelmed with relief as she rushes into their arms and presses herself against them both. Her heart trembles in her chest, with worry and relief in equal spades and she cradles their son in a bone crushing hug against them that Henry doesn’t even protest against.

 

A moment later Regina's own thought startles her and she wrenches herself away from Swan's arm that had curiously found its way around her shoulder and prise Swan's hands from off of Henry, reaffirming that he was _her_ son and _hers alone_ and orders her to clear the crowd away as she takes him home.

 

* * *

 

Swan starts inviting herself around Regina’s house -- to drop Henry off from school. It’s a new development that Henry takes quite a shine to but it leaves Regina miserable beyond belief.

 

And it’s the little things that get to her. How Henry allows Swan to pull him into abrupt sideways hugs or cuff him affectionately on the arm like she’s unable to show him anything other than gruff affection.

 

Or the way her eyes glow with more than just plain affection when she checks him over and smoothes down that little part of his hair that keeps sticking up. Henry hasn’t allowed Regina’s affection that easily in quite a while and she glowers when they interact but doesn’t give Swan the satisfaction of seeing her do it.

 

And she also can’t help but notice Graham’s attention also wavering over to his blonde deputy. Regina bristles at the very thought of them within breathing space of each other every day in that little bullpen at the Sheriff’s station.

 

She lets Graham stay over one night -- breaking their normal routine, but he abruptly jerks away, drenched in cold sweat in the middle of the night. He resists her attempts to coax him back to bed and can’t stop rambling about his dreams being memories and about a boy named Peter. He also goes off on a tangent talking about a majestic lion and a wolf. Regina panics a little, tries to make him see how absurd that idea is but lets him leave when he starts rambling about getting Swan’s help.

 

Swan starts tossing Regina some intense glares from across the streets the very next day. They hit something inside Regina and she calls Graham but gets sent repeatedly to voice mail. Two days without direct contact from the Sheriff leaves Regina irritated beyond belief, her mind supplying her with scenarios of Swan and him together that get her more angry than they have any right to.

 

She confronts Swan about it -- warns her to stay away from Graham. But of course the deputy is a stubborn woman and they butt heads over it. Their petty squabble over Graham ends when the Sheriff suddenly goes missing.

 

Regina doesn’t allow herself to dwell any further on the specifics of it, realizing that somehow Graham had reclaimed his true identity and the curse over the town had likely gotten rid of him.

 

* * *

 

Two weeks after Sheriff Graham Humbert’s disappearance, Swan temporarily becomes acting Sheriff.

 

Regina isn’t pleased at the new development or Miss Swan’s sudden alliance with Gold and is very wary of the two.

 

She plays up her advantage however, sashays into the acting Sheriff’s station to right this great injustice in her town and finds her throwing darts. She rolls her eyes.

 

“Tax dollars hard at work I see.”

 

Emma barely spares her a glance. “What'd I do to warrant a personal visit from her royal highness?”

 

Regina bristles at the condescending tone and the moniker, especially since she knows Henry's still convinced she was the evil queen and parading those thoughts for his birth mother to hear.

 

“Just wanted to personally tell you that I've elected Sidney Glass as Sheriff following Graham's absence. You can go back to your duties as deputy.”

 

“Graham's absence? He's freaking _missing_. You can show a little more concern for your ex boy toy.”

 

“How dare you?!” Regina hisses, pins Swan in place with her fiery eyes and practically growls her next few words. “I am concerned. Concerned that a buffoon is running amok of my town's law enforcement in Graham's absence.”

 

Swan rolls her eyes. “You're acting like he's on vacation. I'm actively carrying on an investigation to try and find him since he disappeared -”

 

“Which has been fruitless.”

 

“-while you're already trying to replace him?”

 

“The town doesn't run itself, Miss Swan. And we're not simply going to drop everything just because the Sheriff ran off to who knows where.”

 

Swan makes a tiny sound of disapproval at that. “You sound like a real callous bitch sometimes, you know that?”

 

“Do I?" Regina mocks. "And what'll that make you? After all, you do work for me, and did you or did you not appoint yourself as Graham's successor? I'm merely doing it in an official capacity.”

 

The acting Sheriff finally stops throwing darts to cast Regina an irritated amused look, one that starts from her heeled shoes, drifts up her calves and changes to an intense type of longing altogether as emerald eyes move _up up up_ and settle at that low unbuttoned portion of her blouse that shows off an impressive amount of cleavage she may or may not have intentionally begun leaving on display. Swan licks her lips and Regina's eyes helplessly follow the action, not understanding that _thing_ that keeps tugging in her chest.

 

Regina revels in that look that always crosses the deputy's face -- one of intense discomfort as she swallows thickly and needs a few seconds to formulate her thoughts. It's amusing, and Regina can recognize someone's attraction to her from a mile away. She smirks, swaggers closer and plucks the dart from the acting Sheriff's hands.

 

“You elected your puppet?” Swan finally finds her voice enough to say, grimacing at her own too raw husky tenor that Regina grins at.

 

“Name calling now Miss Swan? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, what with your juvenile tendencies.” Regina says, throwing a displeased look towards the Sheriff's desk covered with little knick knacks and bear claw wrappers.

 

Swan's face reddens. “You can't do that.” She says drolly.

 

Regina smiles, presses the pointed tip of the dart against her palms and looks gleefully at the acting Sheriff. “Oh as Mayor I can and I did.”

 

“I thought this town abides by rules.”

 

Regina just raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “Your point, Miss Swan?”

 

Swan takes a step that puts her directly in front of Regina -- a power-play tactic if she's ever seen one. Cause now Regina has to look _up_ at her as she reclaims the dart from the Mayor, fingers brushing over Regina's. Swan leans down a little, eyes flickering between Regina's and tone dropping even further and Regina's a bit unnerved at that _thing_ in her chest that feels suspiciously like an anxious little flutter.

 

“The town charter says that you can only elect a _candidate_ to run for the position. And guess what Madam Mayor? I'm running for the position too. And I’m in it to win it.”

 

Regina huffs, haughtily sticks her nose in the air and glowers at the smug tilt to those lips. And just for once, she'd like to _wipe_ it off.

 

“I won't hold my breath.” She remarks, glaring into those eyes that gleam that perfect emerald that suddenly has the power to unnerve her. She forces her gaze away and throws it disdainfully towards Swan's garbage covered table. “And clean this place up, it's a sty.”

 

And she struts out of the office with her head held high and her face burning as those eyes follow her out.

 

* * *

 

Henry’s a little more distant than ever with Regina now, but he doesn’t run away again or skip breakfast or lunch in order to see Miss Swan. It wasn’t the most preferable option, but it does leave Regina feeling a tad bit victorious.

 

She tries to coax him out of his funk and to assure he has a great start to the week ahead, she decides to buy him his favourite hot chocolate at the diner, grumbling to herself that she could have produced a more exceptional blend than the establishment could ever manage.

 

She orders their drinks, an iced tea for her and the cinnamon topped beverage for Henry and pays the young Lucas who watches her with a vague sort of intrigue.

 

It’s a bit unnerving, the young woman never pays her much mind like most in the town. But Regina watches her back defiantly and can’t help but follow the younger woman’s eyes when they flit from her to the next person that comes through the door.

 

“Sheriff Swan.” Ruby is suddenly all smiles and it’s the way that her eyes light up that have Regina a little suspicious.

 

“Hey Rubes.” Swan says and Regina folds her receipt and tucks it in her purse for something to do as she can’t help but interjecting.

 

“She’s the _acting_ Sheriff.”

 

Two sets of eyes turn to glower at her. She glowers right back at the emerald ones.

 

“What can I get for you?” Ruby interrupts their abrupt staring contest and Swan jerks back to the present and grins.

 

“The usual.”

 

“Coming right up!” Ruby chirps. And Regina doesn’t know exactly why she feels the need to make contrived small talk with the acting Sheriff in front of young Lucas but she does.

 

“How’s your _only_ case coming along?” She inquires disdainfully.

 

Swan side eyes her. “As astounding as your faith in my capabilities are and ignoring the mocking, I can assure you that I have a few leads.”

 

“Oh?” She says, surprised. “And what are they?”

 

“That’s classified police information in an ongoing missing person’s investigation.”

 

Regina’s immediately incensed. “I’m the Mayor  _and_ your boss.”

 

“Mhm and you were also _very close_ to the victim.” Swan says and her emphasis on very close has Regina stiffening as she notices Ruby’s prying eyes and knows that the acting Sheriff knows that the young woman practically runs the town’s gossip mill.

 

“What exactly are you trying to accuse me of, _deputy_?”

 

Swan hums. “Absolutely nothing, Madam Mayor. But this investigation is taxing enough as it is and I’m running low on energy and patience. So if you’ll excuse me-“

 

“You’re running another investigation?” Ruby leans over the counter opposite them to ask.

 

“Yeah.” Swan says. “Hey how would you like to be my unofficial helper at the station? You could be my acting deputy.” Swan wiggles her brows and Ruby squeals.

 

Regina’s stunned.

 

“Yes, yes oh my God YES! I mean I’d have to clear it with Granny first, she’s been trying to get me into managing the restaurant but that’s just not my speed, y’know? But oh my God this would be so great!”

 

“Well you helped us find David when he was lost and you’ve got some crazy good tracking skills so you’ll definitely be an asset.”

 

“Deputy, a word.” Regina grumbles and Swan allows herself to be dragged further into the most private booth at the back of Granny’s diner. “What the hell are you doing?!” Regina hisses before they’re even seated comfortably on opposite sides of the tiny table.

 

“Getting help. Plus, I like her.” Swan says, a bit smugly. Regina glowers.

 

“You can’t hire her based on _likability_ , there’s procedure to follow. There are background and qualification checks to be performed which, just by looking at her I can assure you that she isn’t qualified.”

 

“Calm down, she’s been trying to get enrolled into a police academy in Boston and got accepted for the next semester. I just thought that before she leaves in a couple of months I could show her the ropes a bit.”

 

“She what?” Regina blinks. “When did she do that?”

 

Swan shrugs. “Beats me, but she’s up for it and she’s a great tracker.”

 

“I’ll bet.” Regina says, just a tad bit condescendingly.

 

Swan rolls her eyes as Ruby brings over her order of onion rings and a greasy burger together with two similar hot cocoa with cinnamon topped drinks.

 

“Brought Henry’s order too Madam Mayor.” Ruby says. Regina promptly ignores her.

 

“Thanks Rubes.” Swan smiles. “And you’ll pass by the station tomorrow right? Madam Mayor here is insisting that I check you out.”

 

Ruby grins and raises an eyebrow. “Oh? I’ll make sure to wear my best.”

 

Regina’s eyes narrow even further at that if possible. Swan abruptly clears her throat. “Nothing too revealing deputy Lucas.”

 

“I love how that sounds when you say it.” Ruby winks. The acting Sheriff's face goes a shy shade of red. “And hey, thanks for this opportunity Emma. It really means a lot.”

 

“Not a problem.” Swan says, eyeing Regina wryly. Regina grounds her teeth together so hard she swears they might just about fall out.

 

“I won’t disappoint you.” Ruby says as she pats Swan affectionately on the shoulder. The young Lucas’s fingers linger just a little too long on the acting Sheriff for Regina’s liking and the stupid Swan woman smiles as Ruby sashays back towards the counter.

 

“I don’t care if there’s enough money left over in the department budget, I’m not paying her.” Regina says primly, shouldering her purse as she glares at Swan.

 

“Fine, I’ll just pay her from mine. I’ll call it a stipend for an internship. That’ll look pretty good on her résumé.” Swan retorts cheekily and Regina scowls at her. She gets up, snatches her two drinks off of the table in a huff and she struts out of the diner without a word.

 

That evening as she’s having dinner with her son, she still can’t seem to shake her frustration or her immediate distaste which had increased tenfold towards the young Lucas.

* * *

 

Later that week, Sidney gets ahold of Swan’s juvie records and publishes it in an article in the newspapers.

 

Swan comes storming into Regina’s office at the end of the day, having finally seen the article just as Regina’s gathering her things to leave.

 

“This was a juvie record. This was sealed by court order. I don’t know how you got it, but that’s abuse of power and illegal.” The deputy says, practically a growl, and they squabble over the legality of Regina’s smear campaign actions which she defers to Sidney, insisting on her innocence.

 

“How the hell did you get like this?” Swan hisses against her ear as she takes off the lights in her office, pausing on the stairs to regard the woman with steely eyes. It’s the second time she’s asked the question and it hits Regina just as hard as it did the first time. “Henry doesn’t need to lose anything more. He’s depressed, Madam Mayor. He doesn’t have any… Any hope. Don’t you see that?”

 

“He’s fine.” Regina insists, ignoring the way Swan’s pleading eyes hold her helplessly hostage and she abruptly breaks eye contact with her as she starts descending the stairs. Henry had been unnervingly docile within the past few weeks following the incident in the mines. He hadn't once mentioned the fairytale thing and Regina was just about ready to call it a victory.

 

“He’s not fine.”

 

“All I did was expose him to the truth. But you and Sidney will have a chance to get into all that at the debate.”

 

“Debate?”

 

“Yes, Miss Swan, there’s a debate. You two can talk about jail time and juvie records and maybe even your new association with Mr. Gold. He’s a snake, Miss Swan. You need to be careful who you get into bed with.”

 

“I’m not getting into bed with anyone. I’m just fighting fire with-” and that’s all she gets to say before an explosion rocks the building and throws them both backwards as a blaze of fire from the next room practically devours everything in its path.

 

Regina coughs at the thick black smoke billowing against their faces and when she tries to move she abruptly realizes that a slab of thick oaken door frame is crushing her ankle.

 

“Alright, come on – let’s go! We got to get out of here.” Swan says, shielding her eyes from the blaze as she swiftly assesses a path leading out of the building.

 

“I can’t move! You have to get me out. Help me!” Regina says, panicked and frightened and she hates the pathetic whine to her own voice as the deputy finally looks down at her.

 

And she looks up through burning embers at Emma Swan, clad in what Regina was coming to call her signature awful red leather jacket and jeans. She stares helplessly at Swan, digs sharp nails into the forearm she's caught and _hates_ her. "You're going to leave me, aren't you?"

 

Regina's never missed her magic more than she does in this moment cause she just knows that she's going to die.

 

Swan gives her a look. It's one that has an underlying softness that Regina can barely read. Shows Swan's unnerving capacity for compassion on her devastatingly attractive face. It makes Regina's throat constrict and she growls miserably when Swan abruptly jerks her hand out of her grasp and turns to dive through the flames, no doubt heading for the only exit.

 

Death by flames in the land without magic seems fitting for the Evil Queen -- and Regina can appreciate the sordid irony. She's ended many a life by the same means in her time, always wielding a fireball at her enemies. She doesn't get time for her thoughts to completely spiral as Swan comes back, leaping through the flames like some idiotic white knight brandishing a fire extinguisher Regina barely registers.

 

"I found an exit but we have to hurry, part of the roof's already caved in and we haven't got much time, can you walk?"

 

Regina just nods mutely, is helped to her feet by Swan and almost falls back down sucking in a sharp breath when a fierce pain lances through her ankle.

 

A strong arm catches her around the waist and she's suddenly pressed from chest to torso against Emma Swan. She has no idea why she reacts the way she does but the breath rushes out of her lungs and her cheeks burn. Something even the heat in the room couldn't be blamed on.

 

Emma's eyes sweep over her, undeserved concern playing within those green eyes and Regina suddenly has the image of her decking that pretty face with a fist and accusing her of stealing Graham away from her. She hadn't understood the fierceness behind her abrupt anger over it -- supposing it came from the fact that her ownership over the previous Sheriff's affections had wavered exponentially. But as she stares into the equally intense but fierce green eyes, the allure of them nearly shakes her to her core.

 

Emma turns a little, pulls her forward and pain lances through her ankle so sharply again that she whimpers pathetically as she staggers, clutches Emma with trembling fingers and watches helplessly as another flaming beam falls, blocking the pathway they were just going to take. They'd both be trapped there and die.

 

"Just leave me here." She says.

 

And Emma's fierce _no_ shouldn't make her heart flutter like it does. She schools her face into careful indifference and repeats her order.

 

Emma drops the fire extinguisher and suddenly she's being scooped up into a bridal style type of hold. And she immediately appreciates the strength in those long arm and feels utterly humiliated.

 

Emma doesn't seem to care much as her eyes sweep over their new obstacle. Instead, she cradles Regina closer like she's some precious cargo and carefully jogs down the rest of the flaming stairs. Regina doesn't know why but she closes her eyes and burrows against the safe confines of Emma's chest, that calming cinnamon scent clinging to her skin offering a reprieve from her thoughts. Except, now she hears an echo of a giggle and can't seem to shake the feeling of déjà vu as that scent washes over her. They dodge another falling beam and successfully manage to make it to the only exit they can find, grateful that Emma had the foresight to nudge open the door.

 

And suddenly there are reporters and a fire truck pulling into the driveway and rushing past them. Emma doesn't put her down until they get to the medics on standby at the back of all of the commotion and she places Regina down on a gurney as they're both offered oxygen masks.

 

Emma seems perturbed at all the attention, brushing the medics off when they inform her that she'd have to go to the hospital for a full check up for smoke inhalation. But the acting Sheriff is a stubborn one, she shoots them such a scathing look that they back off and instead just let her use the oxygen mask.

 

Regina observes all of this from afar, grateful for the reprieve from her burning lungs as the gentle oxygen soothes her raw throat -- she knows that she'll be going to the hospital for at least a few hours and she grimaces, thinks about Henry and shakily fishes through her coat to find her cell phone.

 

She calls in a favor with Sidney, and the gullible man seems to fall all over himself with concern for her wellbeing. Regina rolls her eyes, tells him she's fine and scratchily barks orders into the phone about getting Henry a well balanced dinner and staying with him until she gets home.

 

She hangs up and her eyes are immediately drawn across the way to the acting Sheriff’s who's no longer making a scene. But Emma's already watching her and that heat returns to her face again at the level of concern burning within emerald eyes cause the woman looks like she's debating whether or not to come over.

 

Luckily she doesn't and Regina allows herself to be taken to the hospital for a checkup and to get a proper brace for her sprained ankle and doesn't allow herself to think about the sudden confusing rush  of feelings coursing  through her chest or the way that that scent of cinnamon burns a hole in her memory.

 

* * *

 

That night she has a strange dream. That same overwhelming scent of cinnamon follows her to her dreams where there's a girl chasing a panther that vanishes when she approaches.

 

The girl giggles, a halo-like sort of veil still covering her distant features as she runs and runs as fast as her long legs would carry her, golden curls whipping about her face as she races across open fields and twisted forested paths.

 

For some reason, Regina has the urge to call out to her. On her fourth attempt, the girl abruptly stills just as she reaches a huge sprawling apple tree. She turns, pinning Regina in place with hauntingly familiar green eyes that lose their recognition once she abruptly awakens from the dream with panting breathes, body trembling with cold sweat and goosebumps that break out across her flesh.

 

Henry's standing at the side of her bed, a tiny frown on his face as he removes his hand from her burning cheek. Regina swallows thickly.

 

"Good morning sweetheart." She says, as cheerfully as she can muster. Henry’s eyes fall to the brace at her ankle and his little frown deepens, having missed the commotion that went on at the Mayor’s office due to Sidney no doubt sheltering him. Regina desperately tries to stop her heart from fluttering when he tilts his head and asks her very softly if she’s okay.

 

“I am.” She assures as she reaches out and runs her fingers through his slightly shaggy hair, determining that he’d need a haircut soon.

 

He jerks away from her touch and Regina’s heart drops as he turns on his heel to leave the room. A few minutes later he bumbles back in with a large tray carrying two paper bags and a few tulips and roses no doubt picked from her garden outside.

 

“Got you breakfast.” He says, a tiny curve to his lips and Regina smiles along with him, a genuine one she barely thought she even knew how to produce anymore until she notices the bags bearing the logo from Granny’s diner.

 

Her smile immediately falls. “Did you leave the house to go out and get that yourself?”

 

“No.” Henry says immediately, nibbling nervously on his lower lip. “Emma dropped them off. But I ordered our favourites, please don’t be mad at us.”

 

That hits her fiercely.

 

“I’m not mad.” She admits quietly, peering into her son’s beautiful green eyes, so similar to Emma Swan’s. It’s something that leaves an uneasy roiling in her stomach and the haunting image of emerald eyes staring intently at her. “Thank you, mijo.” She says and holds her breath as Henry’s eyes settle on the spot right next to her.

 

“Can I?” He asks, and Regina’s heart breaks at the timidity to his words. She pats the space encouragingly and chuckles when Henry scrambles onto the bed.

 

“Careful!” She says as she holds the tray outwards and Henry settles into the pillows against her side, offering her the daily papers he’d picked up from their front porch in apology.

 

She accepts it and places the tray upon his legs and watches, amused, as he unceremoniously tears into the bags to pull out the fluffy looking pancakes and ignores the fruits on the tray.

 

She takes an apple and bites into it as she twists onto her side, adjusting her braced ankle on the pillows to make sure it’s comfortable. When she opens the newspaper, the headline LOCAL ACTING SHERIFF SAVES MAYOR surprises her.

 

There’s a full body shot of Emma Swan with that begrudgingly beautiful mane of blonde curls hanging about her shoulders, a fierce look to her eyes and a hint of a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. She’s clad in her signature red leather jacket and white tank top, fitted denim jeans and black knee high boots, the sheriff badge gleaming from its perch on her hip with her thumbs tucked into her pockets.

 

Right next to that picture is one of her carrying Regina bridal style as they exit the burning building. Regina blanches at the intimate picture they make with Emma’s chin nestled atop her head and one of Regina’s hands fiercely gripping at Emma’s soot covered tank top.

 

“She saved you, that’s what she does.” Henry remarks from his perch at her side and Regina abruptly tears her eyes away from the pictures to glance at her son. “People are calling her a hero.”

 

“Is that what you think of her?”

 

“Mhm. She’s great.”

 

Regina makes a noncommittal sound at that and Henry narrows his eyes. She prepares herself for another of their rows, for him to accuse her of being the evil queen, but it doesn’t come. Instead he gives a tentative full smile in her direction.

 

The surprising part isn’t the smile, however, it’s when she abruptly leans forward and presses a kiss to his forehead, Henry lets her. She sighs happily, finishes her apple and helps herself to some of the pancakes Henry had yet to invade.

 

She realizes that Emma Swan’s heroic efforts would have endeared her to the people and made her a hero in their eyes and she has no way of competing against that. She also admits, begrudgingly to herself that the woman maybe sort of deserved the title and maybe she’d let her off the hook for the weekend. Just until her ankle felt better again, or as long as this tentative truce with Henry lasted.

 

* * *

 

The campaigns they run against each other for this election sparks that need within Regina to win against all odds.

 

Miss Swan and Gold are a formidable team and Regina’s losing more ground to them each day as they play up the _heroic local town savior_ bit. She plays up the _injured Mayor bit_ in response, milking that sprained ankle for all its worth.

 

Two mornings later she finds herself rushing towards Mr Clark’s convenience store opposite Henry’s school. The acting Sheriff arrives at the same time she does and they’re both told of Henry’s little shoplifting spree.

 

“Did you do it?” Regina asks sternly. Henry shakes his head. “My son doesn’t eat candy. It was clearly these miscreants.” She pointedly looks at the twins  practically hiding behind the nearest bookshelf in the store.

 

“Now wait a second.” Emma says. “Innocent until proven guilty.”

 

“It’s either them or my son.” Regina smiles, severely. “Now do your job.”

 

Emma rolls her eyes. “What are your names?” She asks softly, coaxing the twins an inch away from the bookcases as the little boy answers. “Ava and Nicholas.”

 

Emma nods. “Mr Clark, did you call their parents?”

 

“They gave me a fake number.”

 

Emma looks on over at the twins. “Did you?” She asks sternly.

 

The twins shake their heads as they hesitantly peer out from beyond the safety of the bookcase, eyes fearfully flickering over to Regina and then back to Emma.

 

“Our parents couldn’t afford to pay the bills. Please – please don’t arrest us. It will just make things worse for our parents.” The girl, Ava says and the acting Sheriff looks over at Regina.

 

“I need to talk to you.” She says and Regina nods mutely as she gestures in the direction of the patrol car. She walks out with Henry while Emma ends up paying for the stuff the twins took from the store.

 

“Something doesn’t sit right with what they said to me.” Emma says as she approaches the patrol car, watching intently as the twins walk up the street.

 

“And you’re telling me this because?”

 

“Because you can help me.” Emma says simply.

 

“Did you not make Miss Lucas an intern for that very purpose?”

 

Emma’s eyes narrow. “What’s your little vendetta against Ruby? She’s a good kid.”

 

“Debatable.”

 

“She can’t help with this anyway, I need records on them and that’ll fall under your jurisdiction. Anything that’ll make sense of what they said or to prove that what they’ve told us is true.”

 

Regina sighs heavily. “Honestly, Miss Swan. Why don’t you just follow them?”

 

“Where?” Emma asks as she points to the already cleared streets. “Didn’t they say that they live all the way up that street? Then where did they run off to? Something’s not right but luckily I’m good at finding people. I can find them. I just need those files as backup.”

 

“Oh, can I come with?” Henry asks excitedly from his perch at his mother’s side.

 

“No.” Regina says immediately.

 

Henry huffs and petulantly folds his little arms. “Then I’m not going to school this morning.”

 

“Sorry kid.” Emma shrugs. “I practically invented that pout, it’s not gonna work on me. Not attending school isn’t an option so listen to your mom and put that weaponized pout away.”

 

“Need I remind you, Miss Swan, that genetics mean nothing.”

 

“Must you fight me down even when I’m actively helping you?” Emma grumbles.

 

“I don’t need your help.” Regina fires back as she grabs Henry’s arm. “He is my son, and I’ll deal with him as I see fit.”

 

* * *

 

A few hours after Regina's dropped Henry to school, she reluctantly goes in search for those files the deputy requested. She finds them easy enough in the Town Archives and debates whether or not to have her secretary deliver them.

 

She ends up doing a few more hours of mundane work, signing off on agreements and policies until she's absolutely blue in the face. Deciding to spare her secretary the trip, during her lunch break she picks up the files on her desk and slips her heels on.

 

Regina grimaces as she makes her way to her car, thinking of the unpleasant meeting of possibly running into the younger Lucas.

 

She steels herself and enters the Sheriff station with her usual air of nonchalance coupled with haughty disdain and finds the acting Sheriff herself sitting at her seat looking miserable as she scribbles furiously onto a report. Regina raises an eyebrow, eyes sweeping the room in a bid to find the younger Lucas as she swaggers into the office with the files tucked under her arm.

 

“Where’s your teenaged friend?” She asks airily.

 

Emma's head jerks up, a little startled at her presence and Regina grins toothily as the acting deputy’s eyes perform their usual sweep over her body starting from her toes. Emma grunts at her, like one of those uncultured cavemen and rolls her eyes.

 

“You do know she’s like, twenty one?”

 

“Twenty one. Twelve. It’s all the same is it not?”

 

Emma sighs heavily. “What do you want now? I sent those documents you wanted yesterday.”

 

Regina smiles with all her teeth showing – shark-like and just a tad bit too predatory as she drops those same documents upon Emma’s desk.

 

Emma groans. “What the hell’s wrong with it now?”

 

“I think you know exactly what’s wrong with them, deputy Swan.” She says, pointedly staring at the report Emma was furiously scribbling on.

 

Emma narrows her eyes. “This personal vendetta is getting old, Regina.”

 

“There’s no such thing between us, Miss Swan.”

 

Emma rolls her eyes.

 

Regina raises an eyebrow. "Did you or did you not request my help with the twins?"

 

"Yes, but -"

 

"If you bothered to even touch them you'd find that in addition to corrections concerning your childish scrawl, there's a file there on the Zimmer twins, their parents and also a mysterious benefactor who always pays their school fees that keep them enrolled."

 

"Hmm I thought as much." Emma says. "I followed them and found out that they live alone. There's barely anything on their parents in here so I suspect that they're orphans." And Regina hears an echo of that word in her head and watches the look on Emma's face turn a bit grim as she immediately starts shuffling through the file, skimming it for information.

 

"I can help you with them. Get them into a shelter or adopted or help find their real parents." Regina says. She doesn't know why she has the urge to suddenly help the twins, remembering them being obnoxious entitled little pains in the other world but it's a moment of weakness she's not willing to exploit. 

 

However, Emma immediately takes notice of it. "Oh? Your highness would descend from her throne on high to help her loyal subjects?" She mocks playfully. It's another light jab, but one that makes Regina grit her teeth and offer Swan a plastic smile.

 

"Regardless of what you think Miss Swan, I do care. This town doesn't run on weekly protests from inconvenienced citizens."

 

"Just their fears and tears." Emma quips airily and Regina glares. "But thanks for your help, I really appreciate it."

 

"Yes, well. Leaving you alone to a case like that would probably get it shelved." Regina sniffs haughtily and she fights the tiny smile threatening to curve around the edges of her lips as Emma laughs. But it promptly disappears when the deputy's cellphone begins vibrating obnoxiously on her desk a second later and she quickly answers it.

 

“Hey Rubes, what’s up?” Emma speaks into the device and Regina places down her purse upon the Sheriff’s desk and impatiently folds her arms. Emma smiles at something the young acting deputy must have said and chuckles. “You’re a lifesaver. I’ll tell Henry.”

 

The mention of her son has Regina a bit anxious and she fights with her natural curiosity at demanding just what the acting deputy was having that woman get for her son. She grimaces when she hears the obnoxious kissy noises Ruby makes on the phone before Emma hangs up and reaches for her Styrofoam cup of cocoa.

 

And she can’t stop herself from berating her.

 

“Robbing the cradle now, Miss Swan?”

 

Emma splutters, hot chocolate with cinnamon dribbling down her chin as Regina absentmindedly fingers some sort of poorly made baseball paraphernalia sticking out of the wall at the side of the desk.

 

Emma glares up at her. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

 

“It means, dear, that the young Lucas seems to be very taken with you.”

 

“Taken with me?”

 

Regina rolls her eyes. “Besotted. Enamoured. And dare I say, _charmed,_  Miss Swan.”

 

Emma scoffs. “She isn’t, she just likes messing with me.”

 

“As you can see, you are in a position of authority and appointing her as your unofficial deputy could be seen in poor taste and as your boss I can bring this little internship to a termination.”

 

“You wouldn’t dare.” Emma hisses, emptying the tissue dispenser at the side of her desk and glaring over at her. “You fire Ruby, I confirm to her just how close you were with the _previous_ Sheriff.”

 

Regina grins. "Go ahead, dear. I have my ways of getting around those particularly nasty rumors."

 

"I forgot you have your hands in everything around here." Emma says. Then an infuriating smirk tugs at her lips. "Well, you want to."

 

"What’s _that_ supposed to mean?" Regina hisses.

 

Emma moves forward then, abrupt and sudden as she jerks up from her seat and marches over to Regina. Regina takes a few automatic steps back that make her back up against the door. But Emma doesn't let up, her next step practically has them pressed, chest to torso and Regina growls and _hates_ how helpless she feels.

 

"It _means,_  that I've had it up to here with your corrupt ass Madam Mayor." Emma whispers lowly, evenly. Regina practically feels the words in a hot flurry against her lips. She tilts her head upwards, stares into dark green irises that are blown so wide they look primal and dangerous and feels that thrill of anticipation crackle from her fingers to her toes. Swallowing thickly, she squares her shoulders and replies.

 

"What are you going to do about it?"

 

Emma _trembles,_  grasps onto the lapels of her blazer and pins her there against the door, eyes helplessly dropping to her lips. The heated press of their chests and hips shouldn’t have Regina flushing like she does but there's a sudden rush of heat steadily climbing up her neck.

 

"What I _should_ do and what I _want_ to do are two very different things." The acting Sheriff says, voice low and rough and sliding down Regina's spine like the caress of hot flaming want.

 

Emma's eyes haven’t once left her lips and Regina curls shaky hands into red leather with the intention to pry the woman off. But that thought gets abruptly cut off when Emma nudges forward a little and their noses brush and Regina inhales sharply, feels her legs turning to jelly as that thing she can't identify  _tugs_ within her chest.

 

She struggles to find her voice beneath the intensity of those eyes, and she grins, cocky, all bravado, struggling to regain the upper hand she'd lost as she tilts her head back so she's pressed firmly against the door.

 

"Is that a threat Sheriff? Or a promise?" She purrs huskily. It's a daring question. One Regina can attest to not knowing would slip past her lips. But she doesn't retract it. She's been pushing Emma's buttons ever since she came to Storybrooke and she's not going to back down now.

 

Emma stares at her and Regina stares right back, defiant and challenging and caught up in Emma's sudden lustful gaze. Her hands move of their own accord, beyond the red leather as she presses warm palms against Emma's lower back, slipping them up over what she suddenly realizes is a very muscular body. It’s a bold move. One that makes Emma’s breathing halt abruptly and Regina _revels_ in it. She smirks and moves those hands to the acting Sheriff’s broad shoulders and in a totally self-indulgent move, curls her hands around them. Emma growls, a sound that has heat rushing towards Regina’s cheeks and she barely has time to react when Emma promptly surges forward and kisses her.

 

Regina's caught so off guard, not anticipating such a bold move from Emma that she almost staggers as their lips meet. There's nothing gentle about the kiss as Emma _takes,_ mouth molding against Regina's and that tugging within Regina's chest seems to _snap_ , like the release of a rubber band. Regina retaliates immediately, curling her fists harshly into Emma's tank top as she growls into Emma's mouth and sinks sharp teeth into those supple vulnerable lips.

 

"Ow." Emma hisses, fingers digging into her hips and Regina kisses her back with fervor, intense in a way that shakes the air from her lungs and reduces their world to that nonexistent space between their lips.

 

Regina groans as their mouths break apart and come together again and again, hot panting breaths sliding over wet lips as her hands move down Emma’s arms and she squeezes those rock hard biceps she can feel hidden beneath cheap leather when Emma boldly presses their hips together.

 

_Light surrounds them, filtering down from the canopy of the trees above and spilling haphazardly in tiny dots across Emma's sprawled form. Her emerald eyes gleam, lush and green like the forest and Regina sighs blissfully as Emma places a kiss against her palm. Emma’s hair glows, golden in the sunlight where her head rests in Regina’s lap as they animatedly talk and laugh with each other._

 

_Regina's heart is beating so fast and she’s overjoyed as her hands stroke lovingly through thick princess curls that she twists between her fingers. Emma sighs happily, practically preening under the attention as Regina dips her head and presses her lips against hers._

 

Regina abruptly pulls her mouth away from the acting Sheriff's and clutches her forehead where there’s a sudden fierce headache pounding against her skull. She’s practically trembling, too shaken at everything her heart feels as she gazes at Emma’s lips.

 

What the hell was that vision? And what are they even doing? It's unnerving, inappropriate and totally unacceptable.

 

Something she studiously blocks out as she shoves the acting Sheriff away, and her eyes helplessly bore into intense forest green ones that make her breath hitch and her body burn with fierce heat.

 

And that's only from a kiss.

 

They stare at each other for a small eternity which Regina breaks when suddenly there's a jiggle of the lock pressed to her side that snaps them both out of their trance induced haze.

 

"Hey Emma here are the--" Emma pries herself off of Regina so fast it's almost enough to give her whiplash as Ruby tries the lock again and then proceeds to try the window.

 

Regina shakes of the hazy thoughts and manages a cold sneer at the blonde. She doesn’t even give Emma enough time to formulate words as she turns abruptly and jerks the door open.

 

"Geez Ems, you don't have to lock the door every single time, I promise I won't hit on you again I was just -" Ruby abruptly stills in the doorway. "- joking." and the surprise is practically palpable on the young Lucas's face as her eyes meet Regina's. Regina gives her a bland once over before swiftly turning on her heel and moving towards the desk where she dropped her purse earlier.

 

"Hey Rubes." Emma says shakily as Ruby’s eyes bounce helplessly from one to the other. And Regina can’t stand here and watch that eerily unnerving _instinct_ of Ruby’s point her in the right direction of just what was happening before she’d intruded.

 

"Deputy." Regina says quickly, clearing her throat of the embarrassingly raspy tenor. "Make sure those files are on my desk by the end of the week." She orders, congratulating herself for how poised and controlled her voice comes out before she's striding out the door, exiting the bullpen with as much dignity as she can muster.

 

She gets to her Mercedes on shaky legs, not daring to assess why she felt the way she did or why they did that but she makes it almost halfway back to work before a flash of a white bird swooping over the Storybrooke skyline in the distance catches her eyes. When she makes out the outline practically matching that of a _sw_ _an_ she swerves so hard on the empty streets that her tires squeal obnoxiously against the pitch as she nearly crashes into a lamppost.

 

It rattles her and the soul creature's name catches in her throat.

 

It’s all too much to be coincidental. It _has_ to mean something.

 

She calls her secretary and gets her meetings pushed back as she changes route to the pawn shop, mind set on finally figuring who this Emma Swan was in relation to her curse and hoping beyond all hope that her gut feeling was off by miles.

 

* * *

 

Of course the former imp isn’t forthcoming with answers. Regina gets him to admit that her adopting Henry in particular wasn’t exactly a coincidence and that alone is enough to shake her. This birthmother, this Emma Swan. She was important. And Regina wouldn’t rest until she found out exactly how important she was.

 

* * *

 

The dreams seem to intensify after that. They come in lengthy detailed montages with Regina as a bystander, observing the little golden haired girl who her heart curiously aches for. She sees her growing more distant from the people she's forced to interact with, keeping only to herself unless provoked. She sees her getting bullied at school and retaliating and getting expelled. She sees her sticking up for other children being bullied, bolstering her self confidence and sense of justice and Regina grows anxious at it all and debates whether or not to re-visit the imp and tell him about her dreams.

 

Or what that kiss had made her see.

 

She decides against it, can practically hear the mocking lilt to his irritating voice if she'd bear her vulnerabilities to him so she keeps it to herself and distances herself from Emma Swan.

 

At the final debate portion of the election, Regina fights the acting Sheriff and Gold both down to the last until her admittedly under qualified candidate and spy Sidney Glass loses to Emma.

 

It's a bit humiliating but Regina had actually felt a tad bit concerned when Sidney had stuck to her script and demolished the woman at the debate. She was sure that he'd won. He was perfect. He had captured the citizens affections and made Emma seem totally unqualified. But Regina had seen in Emma’s eyes that she was perturbed at something else. Maybe it was that kiss, still plaguing her mind and refusing to leave that had made her take more notice of Emma but she'd found that the deputy was unfocused and all round twitchy in a way that was unnerving as her eyes constantly swept over Regina herself and settled with blatant anger on Gold.

 

Emma had then stood up in Town Hall and thrown her benefactor under the bus by admitting to the public that Gold was behind the fire that endangered the Mayor's life at Town Hall.

 

It hadn't shocked Regina one bit -- Rumple was as manipulative as they came and she knew that curse or not, he would always be a force to be reckoned with. What had shocked her was the anger in Emma's eyes at what Gold had done and the way they softened considerably when they swept over her.

 

The landslide win was well deserved after all. But Emma’s still obnoxious and nothing if not smug in her victory as she pins the Sheriff’s badge to her jeans and struts past Regina after the rigged debate at Town Hall.

 

She even comes over in the evening to apologize, standing on Regina’s porch with a sheepish smile and eyes that seem to look beyond the callous attitude Regina’s presenting to her. Regina’s thrown at the sincerity of the gesture, at the kindness being shown to her that’s usually accompanied with an underlying motive.

 

She’s immediately suspicious of Miss Swan and the motive comes when the newly appointed Sheriff awkwardly tucks her fingers into her belt loops and asks her if she could take Henry out to dinner.

 

Regina pauses, blinks at the woman and can’t believe that she’d had the audacity.

 

She steels herself, narrows her eyes and in her most scathing voice, reprimands the new Sheriff for seeking what could essentially be interpreted as shared custody priviledges.

 

“No matter what you may think, we’re not a divorced couple, Miss Swan. And the last time I checked, you’d already signed your rights away when you tossed him away. Don’t mistake what happened between us as invitation into his life.” She forces out, finally addressing that ill advised kiss they'd shared.

 

Emma's mouth presses into a firm tight line. “Not my fault you seem to have a thing for Sheriffs.” She fires back testily. “Don't stand there and act like you didn't kiss me back.”

 

“I was cornered.” Regina hisses, hating that flush that sweeps up her neck.

 

“You could have told me to stop. Instead you're probably just annoyed that I of all people could make you feel like that and now you’re punishing me by restricting the little time I get to spend with Henry.”

 

“Oh you hold yourself in such high esteem. Don't make me have to take legal action against you, we both know that the law is on my side and so help me if you push me on this I will make your life miserable.”

 

“Regina, he needs us both.” Emma says, eyes blazing with defiance and shimmering with such hope it makes Regina feel a tad bit guilty.

 

No, nauseated. She feels nauseated.

 

“No, he needs his mother. And I've been that to him for the last ten years.” Regina says, eyes narrowing at the Sheriff as she closes her front door. “Good day, Miss Swan.”

 

* * *

 

 

Emma sits on her too lumpy bed in Mary Margaret’s attic and can’t bring herself to fall asleep. Her mind is a whir of thoughts, of encounters with Regina, of memories that plague her, taunting her with their soft innocence. Of those kisses in the dreamscape that did not prepare her for the sensual overload of the new ones they'd shared in her new office a few days ago.

 

They'd shaken Emma, made her weak in the knees as she'd practically lost herself in Regina, struggling against her talented tongue and satin lips that had threatened to override her sanity the minute she'd tasted them.

 

She’d tried formulating a plan to test Regina’s knowledge -- see if she remembered her. But if her mere presence in the town or those kisses they’d shared weren’t sparking any recognition within the woman, then Emma was fresh out of options.

 

This town was a little trippy. Most of the people were friendly but overwhelmingly afraid of Regina and Mr Gold.

 

Emma thinks about that deal she’d made with Gold a while back to save that girl’s baby. She knows she’d done the right thing, but the sly looks the Pawnbroker kept giving her every time they crossed paths sent shivers up her spine. He’d ensured her win against Sidney -- but at the expense of almost harming Regina.

 

She had to be extremely wary around Regina too. The woman clearly had influence over the entire town and she used those resources effectively. Especially her number one fan – Sidney.

 

Emma struggles to remember that place dream Regina had said she was from. She’d only mentioned it a handful of times but it sounded too...fanciful for Emma to even remotely believe in at the time.

 

Dream Regina was a princess who was being forced to marry an old King. So technically she would be a Queen by now...especially if her mother had anything to do with it. There were no reigning monarchs in Storybrooke. Regina was its Mayor, not its Queen like Henry’s sure his book of fairytales had insisted. She thinks of his wide eyed innocence and insistence on calling Regina an Evil Queen. But Regina wasn’t a fairytale, she was a living breathing person. Not one carved from a book and certainly not one as twisted as those fairytales Henry was going on about.

 

And she’s more worried for him now more than ever. Because he was stubborn in his persistence, wanting to  _break the curse over the town_ and  _take his mother down_ and  _reunite Emma with her parents_ who apparently were David Nolan and Mary Margaret. That was by far his craziest theory. He had started calling her  _The Savior_. And as much as she felt somewhat humbled that he had placed her in such a high position within his  _Operation Cobra_ , she couldn’t help but wonder at what had caused him to place such hopes and dreams into those fairytales that allowed him to create an alternate world within his mind and assign real life people these fictional roles.

 

“Emma?” Mary Margaret calls from down below and Emma sits up as the woman pokes her head through the floor. Privacy was something Emma always yearned for but as a foster kid being forced to grow up in the same vicinity as twenty other kids herself cramped for space, it did not exactly give her that privilege. And living with Mary Margret was sort of the same. The woman was nosy to say the least. She tended to stick her head into other people’s business. Like that time when she tried to convince Emma that she had a thing for Graham.

 

She didn’t. She was stewing in rage, in jealousy over _the thing_ Graham had had  _for Regina_  but she didn’t exactly want to admit that to the mousy Mary Margaret who looked just about ready to keel over whenever Regina’s name was mentioned. It was downright hilarious, especially when Emma’s mind drifts back to the mild mannered princess Bagheera had offered her the privilege of meeting.

 

“I’m heading out now, going to um, that book club I told you about? Just out on Maine Street.”

 

And Emma smirks as Mary Margaret avoids her eyes. This was clearly code for meeting David – the married coma patient who she was secretly seeing on the side. She really didn’t want to get into all the ethical woes that presented in and of itself. So she just gave the mousy woman her version of the judge-y eyes and urges her to be careful.

 

Emma falls asleep fairly quickly after that and finds herself silently making her way through a foggy terrain. The dense white fog curls in front of her, masking her path as she walks aimlessly along and suddenly, she comes to an abrupt halt when her instincts tell her that something’s watching her. It’s an eerie feeling, one that evokes a shiver from her as the fog clears partially to reveal the wide surface of a lake less than a few centimetres away.

 

She gasps, heart racing as a cold wind rushes against her exposed skin, forcing her to huddle within the confines of her jacket for warmth. Undeterred but still wary, she thinks about Bagheera and wonders idly if he was trying to return to her.

 

“Bagheera?” She calls softly, hesitantly. Her voice echoes across the clearing and she grimaces at her timidity and calls him again, louder. There’s no shifting of the shadows that she notices at the treeline in the distance, no patter of paws against the ground, no mewling or purring and Emma’s heart aches with sadness.

 

Sighing heavily, she gives the weird dreamscape another thorough look and peers down at the waters just a fraction away from her boots to find herself staring down at the face of a white swan.

 

* * *

 

 

Emma jerks up from her sleep, startled at the sight within her dreams and the soul creature’s name tingles on her lips. She hadn’t thought of Bagheera in a long time, let alone Odette and she wonders at the strangeness to her dreams.

 

She remembers Ruby talking briefly about her own soul creature during one of their lunch breaks at the station last week. She’d told Emma about her wolf, uncreatively named Wolfie. She’d insisted that she was young and stupid and the name had stuck to the soul creature. Ruby had admitted that she was doing some soul searching and she found a sort of solace in wolves, even thought she could have been one in a past life and that was why Wolfie provided such a comfort to her.

 

Emma had caved and asked her if Wolife had ever led her to anyone and Ruby had looked at her like she was crazy and laughed it off. She’d gotten a pitying ‘ _oh Emma, you honestly believe that soulmate nonsense?’_ and she’d felt too humiliated to even continue the conversation.

 

The dream was certainly strange but she puts it out of her mind, going down to the kitchen and fixing herself and Mary Margaret a small breakfast before she leaves the loft.

 

She finishes her pop tarts before the bug’s even halfway down the street and swings by the Mansion to pick Henry up. Regina doesn’t come outside to greet her. Instead, she watches her silently from the window, dressed in a power suit with perfectly coiffed hair to no doubt go into the office on a weekend and Emma’s mind ventures back to their kiss and her face burns when Regina’s gaze bores into her like she _knows_ what Emma’s thinking. Emma muses on the fact that she didn’t get another lecture from the woman, that Regina seemed to be maintaining some sort of careful distance from her.

 

Henry’s all jittery in his seat as he talks nonstop about the Evil Queen’s curse weakening and Emma’s destiny as the Savior on their way to the park. All things she half-heartedly listens to as her mind ventures back to Dr Hopper who’d insisted that they didn’t completely break his ‘fragile’ world.

 

As a result, Emma had begun taking him to the park in an effort to get him to interact with kids his own age. He’d taken a shine to the Zimmer twins after Emma had tracked down their dad with Regina’s help. Henry had spent an entire day with the pair but when Emma picked him up from school, he’d insisted that the twins were in his book too and called them Hansel and Gretel.

 

As they walk through the park, Henry slips his tiny hand into hers and Emma’s heart squeezes affectionately as she smiles openly down at him, loving the fact that he didn’t think it embarrassing yet to do such a thing. He’d curiously forgone going over to the twins in favour of just walking around with her.

 

But, his gaze lingered on the twins’ father, the man who was the mysterious benefactor who hadn’t even known his account had been linked to theirs in an odd twist of fate. His story was weird but checked out and Emma had been goading him into taking responsibility for his kids – which he’d only stepped up to when the Mayor had intervened.

 

Henry remains oddly silent as they walk around the park and as the morning progresses, they popped into Granny’s for a couple of bear claws, on the house because Granny Lucas seemed to take a shine to Emma and how she was helping Ruby to ‘become an upstanding member of society’.

 

Emma indulges wholeheartedly, inhaling the treat like a savage as they continue their walk through the town meanwhile Henry picks at his and looks so forlorn at his free doughy treat that it almost offends Emma.

 

“What’s wrong kid?” She asks, finally mustering the courage to deal with his serious little pout aimed at the treat. “What’d that bear claw do to you?” She takes the last big bite of her own and chews appreciatively as Henry aims his tiny face at her and totally blindsides her with an abrupt shift in the conversation.

 

“Can you tell me about my Dad?” He requests softly and Emma immediately forces down the rest of her bear claw as her throat closes up.

 

She looks at him hesitantly, eyes darting everywhere but at his expectant face and cannot even force herself to tell him the truth about Neal. Instead, she recounts the romance storyline of a movie she’d seen once, where a waitress and a fireman met and fell in love over coffee during his late night shifts where he always complained that they didn’t sell pumpkin pie – ending it with the part where Neal’s life probably got better while hers got worse.

 

Henry’s eyes light up so beautifully at the story that Emma’s conscience berates her for lying. But she smiles at him when he asks if she liked pumpkin pie and can’t bring herself to say she’d never had it in her entire life.

 

It’s then that the buzzing of a motorbike catches their ears and they both turn in time to see a man riding into town.

 

And she’s reminded from Henry once again that _strangers don’t come to Storybrooke_ as the man dismounts his motorbike and checks into Granny’s.

 

* * *

 

Everyone in town gives the man a wide berth and after two days of inquisitively getting blatant stares from the man, Emma approaches him. Emma’s immediately wary of his presence in town, especially when Regina had made it a point to get her to keep an eye on him. The Stranger introduces himself as August Booth, a writer. He’s scruffy and thinks he’s way too charming in his black leather jacket riding his motorcycle around like a frat boy in college but looking more like a man going through a midlife crisis.

 

He also seems oddly interested in Emma. Something she only notices when she starts receiving random drinks whenever they were at the diner together or those awkward winks he’d toss her from across the street.

 

Regina also notices – of course she does.

 

This Regina, or this version of her, did not take kindly to surprises. It showed in the way she had slowly begun distancing herself from Emma. Her visits to the bullpen were virtually non-existent now, as was Emma’s time with Henry.

 

A few days later Katheryn Nolan goes missing. It’s all on the Sheriff’s department to solve the case and Emma’s already frustrated that Graham’s case had now gone cold. She had no new leads and Katheryn’s case was almost the same.

 

She also had to console a disgruntled Mary Margaret whose relationship with David had been outed by Regina courtesy of Sidney snooping around. The town gossip mill was in a frenzy over it as they all shunned her and Regina practically revelled in the chaos.

 

Between placating Mary Margaret, keeping an eye on Sidney sneaky Glass, making sure Henry thought she was still on board his Operation Cobra while not giving into his natural curiosity to befriend the stranger and a tough new missing person’s case, Emma’s frustrated beyond belief. Just when she’s ready to call it quits, Katheryn’s heart turns up – literally.

 

And Mary Margret is accused of murder.

 

A fact that Regina seems just a bit too gleeful about. And Emma can’t for the life of her wrap her head around why Regina wants to make Mary Margaret’s life miserable.

 

Emma wants to pull her own hair out.

 

 “She’s the Evil Queen! She hates Snow White! That’s her motive.” Was Henry’s theory he’d offered to her over and over again. He repeats it again when she shows up to walk him home on his way from school but she can’t even begin to take him seriously with the chocolate bar she’d offered him covering half his face and his entire body all jittery because he’s hopped up on sugar.

 

Regina’s going to kill her.

 

* * *

 

She’s sitting at the diner one day when August sends over a drink to her. They have a polite conversation that leaves Emma with a bit of insight on the man’s lonesome life and she goes back to the station with a lot to think about.

 

Regina comes storming in a few minutes later to the station to request, no, _demand_ that Emma do something about Henry’s new association with the stranger.

 

They bicker back and forth like children which turns into a bit of yelling on Regina's part – which Emma doesn't seem to mind. This was the closest they’d been in weeks and now that Regina was in her face, accusing her of sleeping with August, Emma can’t help but grin at the accusation – infuriating Regina even further.

 

“Is that a bit of the green eyed monster poking through there, Madam Mayor?” She asks cheekily and Regina glowers.

 

“Not in this lifetime, Miss Swan.” Regina hisses, right in her face and Emma's getting lost within those dark irises even as that scary vein on Regina's forehead threatens to pop.

 

“You’re _jealous_.” Emma singsongs obnoxiously as Regina’s fingers curl around her shirt collar and yanks her up from her seat. She gladly follows, as Regina takes a step back.

 

If looks could kill, Emma would already be dead.

 

“I should have made Sidney the Sheriff.” 

 

"Yeah well, I'm the Sheriff. So you'll have to deal."

 

"I'm your boss."

 

"Or a reanimated corpse with no soul." Emma fires back. "I'm still trying to decide why on earth you'd think that Mary Margaret is guilty, she’s not a murderer, she’s harmless!"

 

"There is evidence against her, Miss Swan. That DNA test isn’t faulty.”

 

“Debatable.” Emma scoffs.

 

“Now if you're unsure of doing your job I can always revisit that plan to have you replaced."

 

"I was elected -"

 

"Gold saw to it that you won. That was an unfair advantage and you know it."

 

"Oh fuck off." Emma growls. "Competing against _you_ is unfair. Plus I didn’t know of his scheming but you did the same with Sidney."

 

"I don't appreciate your language or tone Miss Swan. You will do as I say or so help me."

 

"You'll what? Spank me?"

 

There's a begrudging flash of ire in those dark eyes and Emma's only just noticed that she's essentially backed the Mayor into the nearest wall of the Sheriff's station, unaware that they'd been moving towards it the entire time. 

 

And suddenly there's a new type of smile playing around the edges of Regina's lips. It's sultry and seductive, just like the abrupt laughter that spills from her mouth.

 

And Emma's eyes do drop to her lips then. Dammit. And Regina's taking a step that places her face right up in Emma's.

 

"You couldn't handle me." She purrs confidently.

 

Her comment only serves to alert them of exactly how close they're standing and Emma has to work extra hard to prevent her eyes from dropping to Regina's lips. Something the other woman has no qualms with doing.

 

And that's what makes Emma _snap_ , shoving Regina back and slamming her mouth against hers.

 

Regina growls, actually _growls_ in response and her arms snake around Emma's neck and Emma groans when those blunt fingernails dig into her sensitive skin.

 

"Fuck." Emma hisses. Regina smirks. The nerve.

 

Emma doesn't know what she'd expected really, kissing this woman. But that silly little part of her that still swoons at the idea of soulmates and true love and all of that bullshit at least expected something...dare she say it, _magical_ , to happen.

 

What she didn't expect was to be pulled in further, a hand in her hair anchoring her mouth against Regina's or that tiny little purr that slips from Regina's throat and suddenly awakens Emma's libido with a raging intensity that leaves her wet and aching.

 

The kiss ends just as suddenly as it had begun with the Mayor pulling fully away from her lips and shoving her back so she stumbles a little.

 

And Emma’s _frustrated_ at this, this push and pull between them as Regina sets her mouth into a firm line, and Emma tries not to linger on her heaving chest or her messy lipstick.

 

“You can’t just do that whenever the hell the idea strikes.” Regina says, eerily calm. Her voice sends shivers tumbling down Emma’s back and she curiously holds her breath when Regina stalks forward.

 

"Of course." Emma grins, tucking her thumbs into the pockets of her jeans in a way that she knows gives her an authoritative sort of air. “I just do it whenever I know you want me to.”

 

Regina raises an eyebrow at her. Eyes coolly assessing her stance.

 

She moves back over to her purse on Emma's desk and pulls out the set of recent files Emma had given to her the day before and drops them there with a loud thump. Emma groans as Regina shoulders her purse and stalks forward, inserting herself into Emma's personal space like it's no big deal.

 

And she smirks. The asshole.

 

“Do your job, Miss Swan. And stop trying your best to antagonize me.”

 

* * *

 

 

Working on these dead end cases and trying to prove Mary Margaret's innocence have Emma's mind wandering back to the Mayor. They'd had a moment after getting those orphans safely back to their father -- several moments in fact. Regina wasn't all bad -- it just took a while for Emma to truly start seeing snippets of dream Regina within this woman.

 

Emma was smug about it too. Regina was attracted to her and that kiss proved it. So did her abrasiveness afterwards avoiding Emma like the plague.

 

Regina was irresistible, even if her ass was corrupt and she essentially ran the town on the fears and tears of its people.

 

The bonus part about this was that she no longer carefully monitored Emma's time with Henry and the boy could spend as much time at the loft without his mother marching down the corridor and demanding his presence at home.

 

But still, those moments in the office had shaken her -- left her lips tingling in the most delicious way. And Emma had even dreamt a handful of times again about Odette and it had left her nerves a bit frayed.

 

* * *

 

A few weeks later, Sidney approaches Emma at Granny's to inform her that Regina had fired him from the paper and also secretly embezzled fifty thousand dollars from the town's funds.

 

Emma’s still a little unsure of where his loyalties lie but that’s a massive accusation that she curiously wants to get to the bottom of.

 

She agrees to help him.

 

Emma and Sidney follow Regina when she takes a shady trip into the woods a few nights later. Just as Emma’s about to pull over a great distance away, she loses brakes and the cruiser goes careening into a nearby tree.

 

Emma lurches forward with the momentum and she gets a slice on the forehead from the impact of the shattering glass. It’s an effort getting their sluggish bodies out of the car but she and Sidney manage and she curses when she realizes that someone cut her brakes. Not willing to let the trip go in vain, Emma treks on ahead into the woods and pulls up short at the sight of Gold who reveals he sold Regina a plot of land.

 

They get a ride back to town with Gold, an uncomfortable one Emma wouldn’t ever like to encounter again. Emma goes back to the station and with Ruby’s help, manages to get a first aid kit in order to clean herself up.

 

Ruby stays on duty at the station as she meets Sidney a couple of hours later well past midnight and they both break into the mayor's house to find out what the land is for. They discover a plan for a building and Sidney also finds photos of Henry with Emma, concluding Regina had her followed.

 

The next day Regina comes storming into the bullpen.

 

She's dressed in another of her severely sexy pantsuit combinations, that third button straining to hold onto her assets and Emma’s already condemning herself for being unable to focus whenever the woman was around.

 

Regina's fucking beautiful dammit and Emma's been comparing the sweet girl of her past (dream) and absolutely can't reconcile her with this corrupt Mayor persona. It's fucked up. But Regina's domineering and controlling and Emma can't seem to get enough of this new delicious tension that seems to simmer hotly in the air between them.

 

"You broke into my house, Sheriff! I have it on good authority as your boss to fire you for your audacity and violation of the law!” Regina growls and a thrill slivers its way down Emma's spine.

 

“What are you on about?” Emma inquires smugly as Regina glowers at her.

 

“Oh don’t stand there acting all dense. I will not have corruption in my town."

 

Emma raises her head, mustering as much intimidation as she can insert into her voice as she growls right back. "Oh that's rich coming from the source of it. If you weren't in my way I'd have this case solved already."

 

Regina raises an eyebrow, tilts her head and smiles, a severe kind of smile that chills. "Are you accusing me of murder Sheriff?" Regina asks simply, eyes tracking down to the arms Emma has planted on her desk as she leans over to speak to Regina.

 

It makes her move from around the obstacle between them, taking a bold step towards the Mayor as Regina automatically takes one back just like Emma knew she would. And Emma growls at herself because, she's not the same Regina. And soulmates don't exist. And she's up in Regina's face now.

 

"I don't know exactly how you're involved, but I know you are. Like I've said before, you've got your hands in everything around here."

 

Regina steps forward too, a defiant glint to her eyes that sparks Emma's intrigue as she tries to save face by invading Emma's personal space.

 

"Not everything." She says, and Emma almost quakes at the seductive purr lacing her tone.

 

Emma smiles, amused and a little turned on as this woman stares at her, not backing down.

 

Emma's the one who takes a step back.

 

"Right, tell your guard dog Sidney to stop stalking me and maybe your place may be protected from these ‘burglars’ you claim infiltrated your house."

 

Regina merely raises an eyebrow. "I know exactly who infiltrated the sanctity of my home, Sheriff Swan. Care to elaborate on why you think I’d have the influence to have Sidney stalk you?"

 

"No." Emma says simply. "But I’m sure you’ll find out what I mean soon enough.”

 

Regina glares at her and doesn’t even dignify her with a reply as she turns on her heel and leaves in a huff, Emma’s eyes helplessly following her out and she startles and turns to the side door when a loud wolf whistle follows. Her face burns as Ruby gives her a salacious grin.

 

“Hot damn, the level you guys constantly eye fuck each other is off the charts. No one can measure that heat signature even if they tried.” Ruby says cheekily and Emma clears her throat and takes her seat behind her desk once more. “I mean, if intimidation gets you wet Sheriff then she’s your girl for sure.”

 

“Ruby!” Emma splutters and Ruby laughs.

 

“Come on, I could never have someone like her. I think I’d be too scared to react. Let me live vicariously through you.”

 

Emma rolls her eyes. “There’s nothing to live vicariously through me for, Deputy Lucas.” She says evenly and Ruby scoffs.

 

“I’m not blind Emma. Plus I know you made out with her at least twice.”

 

And Emma just gapes at her.

 

“I have a great sense of smell, her scent was all over you.” Is all Ruby gives in explanation before she gets up and stretches and tells Emma she’s going out on patrol.

 

“She’s just…kinda impossible to get to sometimes.” Emma admits woefully and Ruby turns to her as she shrugs on her jacket.

 

“Oh you get to her corrupt ass just find Emma. Trust me.” Ruby winks, and promptly sashays out of the room.

 

Emma grins to herself. Maybe the plan she had would work after all and essentially risking her life with Sidney wouldn’t go to waste.

 

The easiest way to grab the Mayor's attention? Publicly challenge said corrupted ass in front of the citizens of Storybrooke at the risk of looking potentially stupid.

 

And Emma knows just how to do that.

 

* * *

 

 

At the city council meeting two weeks later, Emma shows the files she’d gathered from Regina’s house with Sidney to the entire town.

 

“Madam Mayor's funneling funds into her personal account to build herself a second home in the woods.” She announces confidently to a round of gasps from the citizens. She barrels on. “I was getting too close to the source of her deception and someone cut the brakes on my car a few nights ago endangering my life.”

 

“Those are some very bold accusations, Sheriff Swan.” Regina says, oddly composed as everyone murmurs around them.

 

“They aren’t unfounded.” Emma fires back and Regina abruptly jerks up from her chair, fire in her eyes as she glares right back at her.

 

“Sheriff.” She says, tone deceptively polite. “May we have a word in my office?”

 

* * *

 

Emma waltzes into the Mayor's Office, all smug about her latest stunt. At least it had gotten Regina to talk to her directly instead of the passive aggressive messages she'd had Henry deliver about what she thought of them spending time together all week long.

 

She catches sight of Regina, arms folded tightly across her chest, eyes burning a hole into the wall at the opposite side of the room.

 

It had been forever ago since they'd stood in the same room alone.

 

"What? There something you wanted to tell me that you can't say out there?" Emma taunts. Regina presses her lips tighter together and before Emma knows it, she's walking across the room in sure long steps and Emma's being backed into the door she's just slammed shut.

 

Emma swallows thickly as Regina inserts herself into her personal space like she's been doing all the time. Yet the Sheriff can't for the life of her seem to get used to it. She's practically cornered against the door like a helpless prey while Regina seems to loom above her like the mighty predator in this scenario.

 

“He wasn’t supposed to cut your breaks.” Regina says gruffly. “The idiot was just supposed to scare you. I just –” She shakes her head. “Sometimes I can’t control what he does.”

 

Emma’s lips press firmly into a tight line. “He’s in love with you.” She says. She’d noticed of course. Sidney followed Regina around like he couldn't help himself.

 

Regina makes a tiny sound at that, the word hanging giant in the air between them and Emma’s heart lurches at it and how she longs to just blurt out her own feelings.

 

She stills as Regina moves forward again. She's breathing heavily, nostrils flaring, her blazer clad chest with those extra loose buttons almost pressing against Emma's and taunting her with a peek at olive skin.

 

Regina isn't touching her, but they're a hairsbreadth away. 

 

Emma raises her eyes from their favourite wandering place and inhales sharply when Regina's tongue peeks out to swipe across the bow of her own red velvet lips and over that scar on her lip, that very familiar scar that Emma remembers reassuring her didn't take away from her beauty.

 

And just looking at it now has Emma remembering the feel of it as she'd kissed those lips.

 

Regina's very alluring like this, all wild intense dark eyes and four inch heels that give her an intimidating presence. And Emma's helpless against it as Regina presses their hips firmly together sending shivers rushing down Emma's spine in antsy anticipation.

 

"What am I going to do with you?" Regina murmurs softly and a light flush dust the Mayor's cheek a second after. Emma thinks that maybe she wasn't supposed to hear that.

 

"Regina." Emma whispers out, because why not? Her brain is promptly short circuiting and the woman herself doesn't seem to want to speak to her.

 

"Shut up, Miss Swan."

 

Regina's eyes drop to her lips and Emma's stomach flutters and rolls over itself at the intensity within them. They flicker back up to catch Emma's eyes again before Regina abruptly moves forward and kisses her.

 

Emma groans at the feel of it. At the rightness that accompanies these lips pressed eagerly against hers. At the hands fisted roughly against her leather jacket as her own hands shakily slip around slim hips that press into her so deliciously.

 

And Emma aches because this feels entirely too perfect. She never thought she'd ever be able to kiss this woman beyond what they'd done in their dreams or her office those two times and to have her here even if she doesn't remember their time together is almost enough to make Emma sob with joy.

 

These kisses are very different to the dreamworld, they're more passionate, rendering Emma's heart helpless and her body unable to do anything but actively want to mold against Regina's. She breaks the kiss with a breathy little 'wow' far beyond any sort of snarky quips or eloquent words and isn't even surprised when the Mayor just raises an eyebrow.

 

The hand fisted in her hair tugs her forward as Regina pulls her into another devastating kiss that has her groaning, back arching into familiar but different hands that sneak under her tank top and rake nails against pale flesh.

 

"Whoa, slow down there Madam Mayor, buy a girl a drink first." She sasses. Regina _bites_ down harshly. "Ow, fuck!"

 

And Emma can't help but grin into the slightly pained kiss. It's eerily suited to the woman she is now and although Emma's heart still aches for dream Regina and her soft kisses, the Mayor version of her is impatient, so ardent with her kisses and touches and Emma's drowning in her fiery intensity.

 

Regina's sharp nipping is soothed slightly by the warm caress of her tongue which Emma can’t help sucking into her own mouth. The Mayor groans, the epitome of poise and elegance as their kisses morph into a heated frenzy that has Emma's hips jerking forward of their own accord and Regina smirking obnoxiously against her lips.

 

And Emma's thinking of soulmates again and she can’t help it when Regina nuzzles warmly against her ear and a giant grin forms on her lips as she pulls her closer, slipping her hands lower and rucking up that red form fitting dress.

 

Regina pulls back enough to see her grinning and immediately launches back in, trapping Emma's lower lip between sharp ivory teeth and Emma feels her jeans being skillfully unbuttoned.

 

"What are you laughing at?" Regina growls in that husky demanding voice that has heat pooling between Emma's own thighs. Emma's burning up beneath her lust filled eyes as she digs fingers into sharp hips and kisses her over and over until that alluring red lipstick is barely a memory on Regina's lips. She isn't even aware of Regina deftly unbuttoning her jeans. Or Regina's fingers slipping beneath her boxer shorts but her hips jerk forward when two fingers suddenly slip through her wet heat.

 

She whimpers, outright _whimpers_ and Regina smiles smugly, teasingly fluttering her fingers but avoiding where Emma's practically burning for her to touch.

 

"Regina." She hisses against those full smirking lips and she's unprepared for the way her legs practically shake as Regina's fingers _sink_ hard and fast, deep between her thighs. There's a moment shared between them, a moment where Emma locks eyes with dark familiar ones as those fingers steadily work her up. There's that tug within her stomach, something that blooms, warm and fervent and she's missed this feeling between them, this link that rivals the intensity of her dreamscape as she shudders with pleasure embarrassingly quickly against Regina's fingers. Regina nudges forward, mouth covering her own with wild kisses she tries to match, muffling those sounds against her lips.

 

"Madam Mayor?" Sidney's voice calls from the outside of the door and Regina immediately tears her lips away from Emma's. Something about the man seeing them here feeling weirdly out of place. Regina stiffens within her embrace and that gives Emma further motivation to unwrap her uncooperative arms from around her hips. "The citizens are waiting for you to further address them on Miss Swan's accusation?"

 

Regina clears her throat.

 

"Just a minute, Sidney." She says, far more controlled than Emma ever could have managed if she was trapping someone against a wall with her thighs. Emma groans. Regina wore that dress specifically for her. Or so she was telling herself.

 

She's jerked back to the present when Regina tips her chin upwards, following her gaze with intense dark eyes -- and promptly smirks as she untangles herself from Emma.

 

She turns and walks, no, _sashays_ her shapely ass into the adjoining en-suite area linked to her office and Emma's left panting heavily against the wall, unsure of what basic motor skills even were.

 

"Come along, Miss Swan." Regina says a few minutes later, hair perfectly placed and lipstick reapplied. Emma stares at those lips and bites her own as Regina gives her a cursory once over. "And do try to look less...well fucked."

 

* * *

 

Regina seems unfazed as they re-enter the hall and she sits behind her white mayoral desk and unveils her plans to build a new playground for Henry and all the children in Storybrooke.

 

The revelation has Emma burning with embarrassment but also with arousal and she defiantly sticks her nose in the air as Regina walks on over to her after the meeting.

 

Everyone’s still got their eyes on them and Regina knows if the level of strutting she puts on is any indication.

 

“I urge you to privately discuss your woes with me the next time, Sheriff Swan.” She smiles, that _all-toothy-ha-you’re-an-idiot-for-ever-thinking-I’d-let-you-one-up-me-especially-in-public_ grin. It’s fucking sexy. Emma’s libido is thinking for her now and her eyes fall to those lips she’d kissed and her cheeks burn fiercely.

 

“Noted.” Emma says and Regina goes on to play up her advantage, warning Emma that if she continues to see Henry, she will file a restraining order.

 

She turns on her heels and struts back into the office she’d just given Emma an orgasm in and Emma can’t meet the eyes of any of the town’s people who try to congratulate her for having the balls to face the Mayor head on.

 

* * *

 

 

That thing between her and Emma Swan drives Regina to distraction more than that little blonde faceless orphan plaguing her dreams or her personal vendetta against Mary Margaret.

 

That's the reasoning she doesn’t want to admit to herself later that same week when she invites the Sheriff over for dinner, breaking her own rule about allowing Henry and Emma to interact with each other.

 

The Sheriff shows up dressed in a fancy white blouse that shows off her upper arms paired with her usually painted on skinny jeans and Regina’s a bit distracted from the time she opens the door.

 

“Like what you see?” Emma asks, way too cocky for Regina’s liking and she has to resist the urge to pull her into a bruising kiss that would end with a fierce nip to her lower lip to silently reprimand her.

 

Instead, she clears her throat and tries to prevent her cheeks from burning like an insipid schoolgirl with a crush as Emma’s eyes sweep over her frame and she realizes she was still wearing the clothes she’d gone to work with that morning. She hadn’t had time to change out of her skirt suit when she’d arrived home a bit late with Henry after they’d passed by the supermarket to get some things for their dinner with the Sheriff.

 

Henry wouldn’t stop questioning her about it the whole time she unpacked the groceries and she proceeded to start dinner while he went off to complete his homework.

 

But as Emma’s eyes appreciatively linger on that space where she’d religiously started leaving her third button loose, she doesn’t dwell on her clothes too much.

 

Emma jerks herself out of her stupor and hands her a bottle of wine. But not just any bottle of wine, one of her favourites. She raises an eyebrow at the gift and Emma shoves her hands into her pockets and her cheeks turn deliciously red.

 

“Hope you don’t mind, I asked the storeowner what you usually buy and he gave me this.” She says and before Regina can reply Henry bumbles into her from behind, breaking the curious spell between them as he inserts himself into the space they were standing.

 

She leads them all back into the house as Henry chatters openly to Emma about his day, something he never does with her anymore. Emma could take Henry away and he’d willingly leave with her. The most Henry shared with Regina were stilted conversations, something her heart twists painfully at and she fights the bile that rises in her throat at the fear that still simmers in her heart for this woman who Rumple had called The Savior.

 

What was she even doing, inviting this woman here? Regina had yet to figure out her relation to the curse…other than being the one to supposedly break it. Something Regina had scoffed at. How could a virtual stranger from the land without magic break her curse?

 

Henry seems to be torn between being intrigued and angry about the whole thing. His eyes keep moving back and forth between his mothers as Regina fixes their meal – her exquisite _arroz con pollo_ that she rarely makes. Emma begins setting the table without prompting and Henry helps her, curiously whispering things to Emma that he obviously doesn’t want Regina to hear. She swears she hears him say something about Emma being a genius for going undercover for something called Operation Cobra and she puts it out of her mind as they all sit down to have their meal.

 

Henry's still sullen about her plans to tear down his castle and all attempts she makes at conversation with him fall flat. He talks with Emma about a new book series he’d made Regina buy for him. Something about a place called Narnia that Regina had heard of a handful of times back in the old world. Emma’s apparently a fan of the series and they talk animatedly while Regina sulks.

 

A nudge against Regina’s ankle brings her out of her melancholy and she looks directly opposite her where Emma sits intriguingly listening to Henry. She frowns down at her plate, lifting a careful bite of chicken to her lips when the touch comes again, this time further up her thigh and nudging against her skirt and she slams her fork down with such force it rattles the wine glasses on the table.

 

“Mo –“ Henry cuts himself off from using the word _mom_ but she doesn’t seem to notice, her eyes fixate on Emma Swan’s fake concerned face she’s perfected with those furrowed brows even as her adventurous toes steadily glide up the inside of Regina’s thighs. “Are you okay?” Henry asks again and she tears her gaze away from Emma to reassure her son.

 

Henry eyes her a bit warily but goes back to chattering to Emma a second later. Emma revels in the dark look that crosses her face but doesn’t stop tracing patterns against her thighs and Regina’s hand trembles as she struggles to continue eating.

 

It’s made impossible, especially when Emma throws her a saucy little smirk and nudges her toes directly between Regina’s legs. Regina sucks in a sharp breath, one that garners her two varying levels of green eyed concern. She brushes it off, downs the rest of her wine as Henry collects the plates to carry to the kitchen and as soon as he’s out of the way she abruptly sets down her glass.

 

“What the hell are you doing?!” Regina hisses and Emma shrugs playfully and pulls her foot away.

 

Regina immediately misses the touch.

 

Henry bumbles back into the room a few seconds later to drag Emma into the TV room and Regina sits at the table for an undeterminable amount of time to regain her bearings.

 

By the time Regina’s finished cleaning up the kitchen, they’re both sitting through the opening credits of Pinocchio.

 

Regina side eyes Henry who’d strategically tucked himself into Emma’s side on the large single leather chair. She rolls her eyes, not dwelling on that stray feeling in her chest that flutters at the sight of them together which she squashes immediately, takes a seat on the other single seat next to them and proceeds to glower at the screen.

 

By the time the movie is done and Regina’s stewing in a bit of rage over having to watch these ridiculous fairytales, Henry’s already fallen asleep.

 

Emma picks him up, that look in her eyes when she cradles him against her chest so openly vulnerable that Regina just finds herself shakily pointing her up to his room and making her way back into the kitchen for another glass of wine.

 

Emma comes back down fairly quickly, leaning herself against the archway leading into the kitchen as her eyes sweep over Regina – something Regina will never admit that she feels like a physical caress. She’d rather blame it on the wine.

 

“Don’t you know it’s rude to drink without your guest?” Emma asks softly and Regina’s eyes immediately settle over her.

 

“That would imply that I place you in a position of importance, and we both know that’s not true.” She quips back, a smile daring to curve at the corner of her lips when Emma smiles.

 

“Oh but you cooked me a meal, you cleaned the dishes, let me spend time with Henry.”

 

“A mere consequence of having dinner with us, Miss Swan. I can assure you that I only invited you here for Henry’s benefit.”

 

Emma tucks her fingers into her jeans and walks on over, the kitchen island the only thing separating them. “Henry swears he didn’t know anything about me coming. He also let it slip that you don’t often cook your infamously amazing arroz con pollo for just anyone.”

 

Regina’s face burns at the accuracy to the implications to her actions and her eyes helplessly follow Emma as she rounds the island and places her hands on the counter, bracketing Regina within her arms. Regina takes a step back as Emma moves forward, pressing their hips together and trapping Regina there.

 

“Admit it, you wanted me here.” Emma says, no, _breathes_ against the shell of her ear.

 

Regina swallows thickly, places down her glass of wine as her throat goes dry once more and allows her eyes to sweep over those lightly muscled arms. She’s a tad bit inebriated, but she’s nothing if not direct as she tips her head to stare into those overwhelmingly emerald eyes.

 

“Fine. I wanted you here.” Regina says, reaching out to card her fingers through those begrudgingly attractive princess curls that contrast nicely with the rest of Emma. Emma leans into her touch, eyes fluttering shut for a moment that allows Regina to curiously examine just how vulnerable she openly allows herself to be in this moment.

 

"Oh? Are we addressing this thing between us?" Emma says, so cocky and so damn smug. Regina  _wants_  to hurt her.

 

The fingers in her hair tug harshly and Emma yelps as her face gets suddenly pulled closer to Regina's.

 

"What thing?" Regina says and Emma doesn't get to retort as Regina's warm hungry mouth descends upon hers. Regina allows herself to be lifted onto the counter top as Emma groans against her lips, a single sexy sound that tingles warmly down Regina’s spine as those kisses turn even rougher, new and all-consuming, just like them.  

 

 _Fuck, you bit me now I'm gonna bite you_  kisses as Emma's hands slip into her perfectly coiffed hair and mess it up.  _Refusing to let go_  kisses as Regina's hands dive beneath cheap flimsy cotton and rake blunt nails down a muscular back.  _Battling for control_  kisses that are deep and so sensual in their delivery that they make Regina keen with fire that races through her veins. Fire that consumes as breathy moans break lips apart from kisses that are tongue and teeth and harsh mingling breaths.

 

Emma’s lips break away from hers as she growls into her neck and Regina whimpers a little as she sucks wetly against her pulse point. She’s lifted up from the counter then as their mouths reconnect and her legs wrap around Emma’s waist as they make their way into the other room.

 

A few bumbling mishaps later, Regina's being pressed lengthwise against the cushions as Emma’s talented tongue slips into her mouth. Regina hums at the feel of it, especially when Emma impatiently proceeds to rid her of her shirt, lifting it over Regina’s head and not even waiting for her to discard it before her lips descend against her fevered skin.

 

Regina arches into the touch grabbing fistfuls of blonde hair as Emma's thumbs slip beneath her bra and deftly unhooks it.

 

It falls away from her chest as Emma sits up, eyes blown so wide they look primal and send shivers that cascade down Regina's spine and settle between Regina’s thighs.

 

Emma lifts her own blouse away, revealing her equally white bra which she roughly discards and Regina’s mouth waters at the sight of those perfectly pink nipples paired with those defined ab muscles.

 

Her hands immediately settle at Emma’s waist, eyes helplessly following as Emma leans over her once more leaving them both exposed from the chest up.

 

They both groan pleasurably at the feel of each other, and Emma adjusts herself so she’s pressed between Regina’s thighs.

 

Regina pulls her down into an open mouthed kiss as her hips grind into Emma, especially when Emma slips her hand beneath her skirt, not waiting a second before she sinks those fingers past soaked lace and deep between her thighs.

 

Regina’s moans hotly against her mouth, not wanting to be left behind as she reaches down between them to roughly unbutton Emma’s jeans as Emma’s fingers work her up.

 

It’s a bit of an angle getting her hand into the Sheriff’s boxer shorts but the minute she does she flicks her fingers at Emma’s clit earning her a pleasurable whimper.

 

Emma sinks down onto her fingers as they both continue working each other up, panting too much to keep their lips together.

 

They’re grinding against each other like a couple of horny teenagers and Regina’s just about ready to combust when Emma adds a third finger, stretching her so deliciously that she cries out in pleasure.

 

Emma smirks against her lips and Regina vows she will not be outdone. She redoubles her efforts, sinking into warm wet flesh as Emma’s incoherent panting against the shell of her ear washes down her spine.

 

They both come in waves, bodies coated with a thin film of perspiration as they slump against each other.

 

Regina doesn’t know how long they stay there trying to catch their breaths, but it’s a while later when Emma pushes up on her arms and traps her again within that alluring ocean of emerald. She’s unprepared for the soft sweet kiss delivered against her lips or the husky note to her name when Emma whispers it. And whispers something else about her soulmate leaving her and Regina wills the moment not to be broken by words.

 

Words are messy and unnecessary in this moment.

 

So they don't speak in words.

 

She pulls Emma into another kiss so that they speak in _touches_ and _heated kisses_ that start so tentative and soft that they shake Regina's heart and squeeze it tightly in her chest. But she banishes that feeling as well as she can, grabs handfuls of blonde hair and curls her tongue against Emma's, turning those soft exploratory kisses into a frenzy of deep stolen ones that end in the most sinful of groans.

  

The only words shared between them are swear words then, pleading words that beg for more as the rest of their clothes are ripped from their bodies, more pleasure as Emma dapples kisses along the softest skin between olive toned thighs and Regina comes in quivering waves against Emma's mouth and she see stars.

 

Something she blocks out as studiously as she can. Especially when Emma leans forward and kisses her softly, chastely, giving voice to the vast undercurrent of strange bubbly feelings brewing beyond the lust that simmers hotly between them.

 

And it scares Regina.

 

Scares her so much that she rips her mouth away from Emma's and ends their tentative explorations for the night as she marches her over to the front door.

 

Emma doesn’t combat her order for her to leave the house, instead she dresses in a bit of an enraged flurry as they argue about why Emma has to leave and she pins Regina’s still naked body against the door of the mansion and kisses her with everything she’s worth.

 

“ _Get out_.” Regina hisses as she rips her mouth away from Emma’s and Emma’s eyes bore into hers like she can see past her soul and straight to the truth and Regina just can’t deal with that right now.

 

 _Self-destructive_ , the thought whispers in her ear. But she banishes it away and slams the door shut on the Sheriff. She goes up to her room to have a shower, washing away all the pleasures her body yearned for with Emma as she struggles with her need to simultaneously mold her body to Sheriff’s and also hold her at a careful distance.

 

* * *

 

Regina’s dreams that night lead her into that almost familiar meadow again.

 

She sees the blonde girl playing with a panther and a swan. But not just any swan, it’s Odette. She calls out to the soul creature who turns to her and watches her with those familiar green eyes. Odette turns away a second later and she flies out of the clearing. Regina immediately follows her and she’s led through trees and brambles towards a lake. She pauses within the confines of the trees when Odette’s form disappears and she gasps when she notices she isn’t alone.

 

There’s a blonde woman crouched just on the outskirts of the lake. From the back, her hair hangs in loose princess curls and Regina’s breath hitches when she turns and that’s unmistakably the face of her Sheriff.

 

Emma’s eyes sweep over the area before she’s peering once more down into the lake.

 

And suddenly, Odette’s head breaks free of the waters and Regina’s abruptly waking up from the dream.

 

* * *

 

 

That break between them doesn’t last long. Especially when Emma starts hanging out with August Booth again and Regina’s possessive nature rears its ugly head and she marches on over to where they’re having drinks in the diner and orders Emma to follow her out the establishment.

 

They have a row right in front of Granny’s that ends with Ruby dragging Emma away and Regina is absolutely seething by the time her lunch break is over and she’s scheduled for some meetings she has no interest in.

 

She goes to her father’s gravesite in the evening and brings him flowers and tells him all about the idealistic son she misses and her recent no good Sheriff. It helps her to cope with the obvious jealousy that curls heatedly in her belly every time she thinks of that man touching any part of Emma.

 

The Sheriff comes over to the mansion again that evening, so ready and willing and they fall into each other like a violent tidal wave. One that makes Regina’s skin burn with every ardent touch and she can’t explain why she feels the way she does when Emma kisses her.

 

She’s at a loss for words and her heart shakes and quakes in her chest as they pleasure each other, the carnal desire for the woman burning low in her stomach and seemingly unsatable.

 

And Regina doesn’t want to access just why she’s so fixated on the Savior. The one who’s apparently fated to end her dark curse.

 

“My soulmate left me.” Emma whispers offhandedly, brushing away a lock of raven hair stuck to Regina’s forehead. Regina freezes at the touch and glances over as she detects the little tremor to Emma’s voice that unsettles her as this soulmate topic hangs over them again.

 

Regina had banished it the first time Emma had admitted her soulmate’s favourite drink was cider. And the second time when they’d first had sex and Emma had admitted that her soulmate had left her.

 

The sorrow to Emma’s voice seems to deeply affect her and she’s annoyed at herself and that tug within her chest that feels it so intimately. Regina tilts her head and disobeys her own rule to not respond to Emma's contrived little attempts at pillow talk. But she’s curious. Emma has said that same phrase again. And now, lying here in her arms all sated, Regina can’t bring herself to be cruel.

 

"Why did they leave you?" She asks softly. Emma seems to almost startle at her words, presses her lips tightly together and lets out a little humourless laugh.

 

"Why does anyone leave me?" She retorts with that derisive little tilt to her lips. "She probably realized that I wasn't worth it."

 

That can't be right. Regina sits up, holding the sheets to her chest as she leans on her elbow at Emma's side.

 

Emma's looking at her almost like she wants to cry and Regina's not very good at handling situations like this -- doesn't know why she'd even want to handle this situation in the first place.

 

Emma looks so pitiful and forlorn and Regina's heart lurches, unable to stand the look any longer. She allows the sheets to pool at her waist as she leans over Emma brushing their exposed chests together. Emma hums, curls an arm around her hips as Regina kisses her, softly at first, then more intense as a form of distraction, dipping her tongue into warm wet heat as Emma rises up and changes their positions, and rolls on top of her, sufficiently distracted.

 

And all talks of this supposed soulmate and her abrupt departure from Emma's life is successfully stopped as teeth nip and lips break apart and come together and soft moans fill the room once more.

 

It's such an odd feeling for Regina, feeling and caring this way over someone who wasn’t Daniel. Graham had worn out his welcome a few years back when they'd started that thing between them. Regina was aware she basically used him as a bed warmer, unable to stand long days or nights alone.

 

Regina had barely slept the night before and as her orgasm washes over her tired body a few minutes later she ends up falling asleep cradled in Emma’s arms. She doesn’t sleep long, just long enough for her to apparently dream of a black panther that startles her awake.

 

Regina certainly hadn’t expected that. It’s always so weird to her how most of these dreams feel like snippets from her memories.

 

A kiss placed directly on her shoulder pulls Regina fully into the present and she’s made aware of her naked body caught in Emma’s arms as the Sheriff nuzzles warmly against her, her wandering hand idly tracing the contours of Regina’s sharp hip bone and wrapping around her middle.

 

It’s scary how Emma just _softens_ right after sex, carding pale fingers gently through her hair and kissing the nape of her neck and her temple.

 

It feels _too intimate_ , too soft to be _them_ and Regina immediately peels herself out of Emma’s arms and has never missed her magic as acutely as she does in this moment. Emma's wandering eyes trip over her like a waterfall and she groans, a sound which sounds so blissfully sinful to Regina's ears. She had the sudden need to her face one more time.

 

But she doesn’t. Instead, she goes to her closet to change and by the time she returns the Sheriff had gotten the hint and she’d left before Henry had returned from school.

 

* * *

 

 

Regina has that same dream about Emma and her swan again and this time the imprint of Emma and Odette stays with Regina all morning. As soon as she sends Henry to school, she reads an email from Sidney stating that he'd dug up some more information on Emma Swan and clicks the link to an article about a baby being found in the forest on the outskirts of Storybrooke by a boy on the exact same day the town was made.

 

Her blood boils and she marches down to Gold’s shop and demands answers.

 

Gold isn’t exactly forthcoming and Regina schemes the rest of the week to get him to talk to her.

 

She has that precious chipped cup of his stolen and Gold imprisoned for assaulting Moe, thinking he was the one who’d done it.

 

Gold resents her. It’s clear in his dark beady eyes and the feeling is quite mutual between them. She can't ever look at his face and not remember the girl she used to be before this, before all of the revenge and the lies and the madness. Before he'd taken advantage of her in more ways than one. She squares her shoulders as she confronts him, holding his prized cup in front of his face and he sings like a cannery -- admits that he’s had his memories for a while and that he wrote Snow White's baby Emma into the curse as insurance.

 

“You want this curse to end.” Regina hisses at him. “Everything I’ve worked for!”

 

Rumple says nothing to that and she storms out of the holding area in the Sheriff’s department, straight past Emma and back to her office. The Sheriff comes over with lunch that same day but Regina's nerves are too frayed to even muster the courage to interact with the woman who she now realizes is Snow White's insufferable offspring. So she makes up some half assed excuse and goes to her vault with Henry’s book and reads it cover to cover until she gets to the missing pages that make her rage internally.

 

It doesn’t provide her with any information with regards to dreams nor does any of the books on magic she’s packed within the confines of her vault. It was impossible, the dark curse was supposed to be indestructible. 

 

* * *

 

 

Emma doesn’t heed her warning about August. Of course she doesn’t. She’s a stubborn fool and Regina’s stewing in jealousy so deep she's appalled at herself for feeling like this over Snow's spawn.

 

She doesn’t think too much about it when she follows Emma to a house hidden somewhere in the woods where the oaf was now residing.

 

It’s a little treacherous getting there on the uneven road but Regina manages and starts reevaluating exactly why she was acting so territorial where the Sheriff was concerned.

 

To Regina’s delight, Emma doesn’t stay in the house long but she misses Regina’s blatantly parked Mercedes poorly hidden behind a few shrubs as she jumps into her bug and tears away from the house with a screech of wheels.

 

Emma had come out of that house too shaken and Regina’s natural curiosity takes her up the creaky stairs to the house herself.

 

She peers into the glass window and rolls her eyes at the filth that inhibits her from seeing inside. She huffs and tries the luckily unlocked front door and shuffles quietly inside. Unfortunately, the house is old and the floorboards squeak dangerously beneath her heeled boots and she grimaces and listens intently for any other noises as she walks along the corridor.

 

“Emma, that you?” A voice calls softly and as Regina rounds the corner, she comes face to face with the completely wooden form of the stranger, August Booth who’d ridden into town.

 

“Pinocchio.” She hisses beneath her breath and before the man can take notice of her she immediately storms out of the house, jumping into her Mercedes and tearing away from the curve as she goes into self-preservation mode. Emma had likely seen August’s wooden body with Henry’s relentless coaxing to get her to believe in the curse.

 

It was just a matter of time now before she found a way to break the curse. Regina growls at herself and forces that tugging in her chest into submission for what she realizes she has to do. She had to get rid of the Savior in order to protect her curse over the town.

 

* * *

 

She blackmails The Mad Hatter into helping her retrieve a poisoned apple from the other world and spends a full day locked in her vault ignoring Emma’s calls and that stupid tugging in her chest.

 

It becomes way too unbearable and when Emma shows up that night on her porch after Henry’s curfew, Regina can’t stand the relief that jolts within her heart. And she can’t even muster the courage to push Emma away when she presses her up against the door, roughly shoves her hand into Regina’s lace underwear hidden beneath her modest pyjamas and takes her there.

 

Emma’s ardent kisses practically turn her to mush against the thick oak of her door and she pushes her away when her thighs tremble and her legs threaten to give out. Her body’s sated but yearning so fervently for Emma’s touch and Emma’s lips – something she doesn’t want to dwell on as they make their way towards her bedroom in a frenzy of crashing lips, nipping teeth and haphazardly discarded clothing that find their way to the floor.

 

They land on Regina’s bed in a pile of limbs by the light of the moon, sharing kiss after kiss as their naked bodies mold against each other and Emma starts that slow hypnotizing grind against Regina’s core. Hot open mouthed kisses reign down her chest and her back arches as heat sears through her skin and her sex throbs.

 

Emma roughly pulls a nipple into her mouth that garners a hiss as white teeth sink into silky flesh. It’s an exquisite feeling, one that makes her even wetter and she whimpers as Emma’s mouth moves to the next nipple.

 

Regina’s nails rake across Emma’s back, earning her a delicious hiss and a breathy groan as Emma pushes up on her arms for leverage. Regina’s arms fall to her hips and immediately settle around the Sheriff's shapely ass as she’s tries desperately not to drown in dark emerald. Emma licks her lips – an action that’s oddly sensual as she grinds down against Regina, making her aware of just how wet they both were.

 

She tweaks Emma’s nipples in response causing Emma’s hips to jerk down against her sharply and she caves and pulls the Sheriff into another devastating kiss just as she reaches down between them and slips her fingers into the slippery wet heat gathered between Emma’s thighs.

 

Emma moans at the intrusion, panting hotly against Regina’s mouth as she groans her approval. She sits up, muscled thighs bracketing Regina’s waist as Regina starts up a steady rhythm.

 

The corded muscles of The Savior’s neck strain against pale skin, illuminated solely by the moonlight as she throws her head back, that wild mane of blonde hair cascading like a golden waterfall over strong shoulders.

 

And Regina’s ever growing libido where she was concerned skyrockets in response. Emma Swan is beautiful.

 

The Sheriff shouldn’t look so damn _regal_ riding Regina’s fingers but she does and it makes the brunette’s heart leap traitorously as she swallows back a moan.

 

Emma chooses that exact moment to reopen her eyes and lean forward. Her breasts heave with exertion and Regina is entirely fixated as the blonde leans down and kisses a point at heated skin just beneath her jaw, shuddering deliciously against Regina as she comes in waves.

 

“Jealousy looks really good on you, Madam Mayor.” Emma sighs blissfully against her ear. Regina is about to protest but a kiss follows this testament that has her sighing against pink kiss-bruised lips. Her wet fingers slip into blonde curls and Emma allows it for a few seconds before she disconnects their mouths and grins rakishly.

 

Regina’s sated and tingly and Emma Swan is entirely too insufferable when she’s all smug.

 

* * *

 

 

Regina doesn't see Emma for two weeks. Two weeks in which she gets fleeting glances thrown to her across the road or manages to get a glimpse of the yellow monstrosity as it hurtles down the street. 

 

The two weeks in which that case with Mary Margaret gets more intense as Katheryn Nolan's murder investigation starts coming to a close and nothing Mary Margaret or David Nolan or Emma said could change the outcome.

 

In a twist of fate, Mary Margaret ends up getting acquitted of all charges when Katheryn Nolan suddenly shows up, unharmed. Regina panics and gets Sidney to confess to kidnapping her and tampering with the evidence but Emma doesn't believe him. She watches Regina with cold hard eyes from across the room in Town Hall and Regina feels it pierce her soul like a knife.

 

The very next day, she doesn't see Emma around town at all. It had become a weird sort of ritual for her, keeping an eye on the Sheriff. Instead, she'd seen the deputy, young Lucas, frantically conducting a missing person's search all over town that she'd curiously ignored.

 

Emma comes over around two in the morning, shivering in her flimsy tank top and skinny jeans minus the signature awful red leather jacket frantically pounding against the door of the mansion. Regina hadn't been asleep but Henry was and she'd ventured down the stairs in a storm to give whoever it was a piece of her mind.

 

“This town is fucking nuts.” Emma says the minute Regina pulls open the door. She stands there, hands trembling, eyes darting over every inch of Regina’s form.

 

She starts muttering crazy words of her and Mary Margaret being abducted by a crazy man who thinks he’s The Mad Hatter, waking up bound and gagged on a couch in a house deep in the woods as he orders her to ‘make him a magical hat’.

 

And Regina’s seething with rage and aching to turn Jefferson into ash.

 

“Did he touch you?” She asks, voice as controlled as she can muster.

 

Emma shakes her head. “I dealt with him but you’re missing the point! He thinks magic is real. _Magic_ isn’t fucking real.” Emma spits bitterly, going off on another tangent about a woman named Ingrid and a boy named Peter. “I can’t understand this crazy vendetta that you have against Mary Margaret. Did you and Sidney send Jefferson to kidnap her? To kidnap me?!”

 

“Why would I do that?”

 

“I don’t fucking know!” Emma shouts. “Tell me why you even do the things you do?? I’ve done nothing but fight tooth and nail against you since I came to town over everything and yet I barely even know anything about you Regina.” Emma hisses ruefully, hand trembling as she takes a deep breath and gruffly swipes her tears away. “Why do you hate Mary Margaret?!”

 

Regina doesn’t say anything in response.

 

“Jefferson kept raving on and on about how you’d wronged him and his daughter, about how you’re The Evil Queen.” Emma chuckles sharply. “How about that freaking book Henry clings to like it’s the bible? I read it once and almost threw it out my window. Why the fuck are we letting him read about these fucked up unhappy fairytales?”

 

“Not to mention how Henry, August and now Jefferson keep insisting there’s a curse over the town that displaced them all from the Enchanted Forest, that you’re The Evil Queen who cursed them and my parents to this land to have your revenge. That I’m this magical Savior who’s supposed to free them all and destroy you. Why do they all have the same theories? Is there something trippy in the water here in this town?”

 

Regina reaches out for her, trapping one of Emma’s raving hands around the wrist.

 

“Henry’s asleep, as are most people. It’s an ungodly hour. Why don’t you come inside and sober up?”

 

Emma rips her arm away, chuckling openly and swallowing dryly.

 

“I’m not drunk Regina.” Emma growls. “I’m of sound mind. And I thought about taking Henry away a few nights ago, just taking him and leaving Regina.” Emma trembles and Regina’s heart drops and speeds up so fast as she’s blindsided by her rage.

 

“You wouldn’t dare!” Regina hisses.

 

“I fucking would!” Emma shouts back. “Magic isn’t real!”

 

She’s breathing heavily by the time she’s done and Regina just stands there, tilts her head to the side and says. “You sound absolutely certifiable, Miss Swan.”

 

Emma takes a step forward, hands bracketed on the door frames as she trembles and leans into Regina’s space.

 

“You and your town are making me that way.” She whispers ruefully, as Regina tips her chin so that she’s peering helplessly into those overwhelmingly distraught emerald eyes. “Nothing makes sense anymore. I need to get away from all of this.”

 

And Regina’s heart clenches in her chest and she’s  _afraid_ because Emma’s starting to doubt reality. It was obvious in the way her apple tree had started dying indicating that the curse is weakening even further. Its proof that Emma Swan is on the cusp of believing that the curse over the town is real and she _has_ to do something about it. She hasn’t found her happy ending yet and she stares into Emma Swan’s devastatingly attractive face and longs for it so acutely that that tug in her chest _hurts_ even though Emma’s standing right in front of her.

 

“You sound like your mind is made up.”

 

“Yeah.” Emma says. Regina’s heart hurts even when Emma nudges forward and kisses her, leaving her quivering on her porch when she suddenly turns on her heel and makes her way back to her monstrous yellow car.

 

It solidifies Regina’s need to protect her curse over her town, even at the expense of Emma Swan and she goes to her vault the next morning to retrieve the apple she'd had Jefferson recover from the old world.

 

* * *

 

That afternoon, Emma comes over again to see Regina about Henry, telling her that she’s made up her mind and that she’s leaving town within the hour. They both take in the other tentatively and Regina invites her into the house for one last time. Emma follows her into the kitchen and admits that she still wants to be a part of Henry’s life, so she would rather they would get along than not.

 

The echo of Gold’s words that all magic comes with a price rattles around her head as Regina smiles and offers Emma a treat for the road. Emma looks at her fondly and takes the Tupperware container just as Henry comes bumbling down the stairs to find them.

 

“You can’t leave! You’re the Savior! You have to save us.”

 

“Were you eavesdropping?” Regina reprimands him.

 

“Emma!” Henry shouts, ignoring his mother's stern look. “You can’t leave me!”

 

“That’s quite enough Henry. Leave, Miss Swan be.”

 

“Emma.” Henry implores fervently. “The curse has weakened so much, you’re almost believing!”

 

“Henry.” Emma’s voice wobbles when she drops to her knees, cradling the container beneath her arm as she places her hands against his cheeks. “All of this has got to stop. It’s not good for you. No good for us.”

 

“She doesn’t love me!” He wails, crying along with her too.

 

“She does love you kid. She just feels threatened by me. All she’s ever done is fight for you!”

 

“But she wants to kill you! She wants to hurt your mother, Snow White!” Henry shouts.

 

“Henry. Stop.” Emma says sternly and he glowers at her but launches into her arms and promptly breaks down into deep gulping wails. Regina watches on helplessly, eyes tearing up at the sight of the distress she’s managed to put Henry through by not validating his beliefs and _hates_ herself. Hates her past.

 

Emma holds him tightly and the container slips out from under her arms and clatters to the floor. Henry pulls away and curiously stares at it and then back at Emma.

 

“What’s that?” He asks softly and Emma stands as he picks it up and opens the container.

 

“Just a peace offering your mom gave me.”

 

Henry takes a sniff of the pastry and promptly turns to Regina with fire in his eyes. “This is poisoned!” He hisses.

 

Regina takes a step back as Emma takes the pastry away from him. “Stop this right now.” She says sternly but Henry rips the container away from her hands and marches over to Regina.

 

“Why are you doing this?” He cries and Regina’s heart shrivels up in her chest. “I _hate_ …” He starts but trembles so hard he can barely finish the sentence.

 

Regina’s crying now too and she reaches out to him but he pulls away.

 

“Henry.” She chokes out as Emma comes to her side.

 

“Kid. Come on, please stop all of this insanity. Give me the container!” She reaches out to him but he shrugs away, placing himself behind the kitchen island so that it’s between him and his mothers.

 

Henry shakes his head sternly, shakily grabbing a fistful of the turnover and glaring into Regina’s eyes.

 

“Henry you stop this this instant!” Regina hisses, panicked and so shaky, Emma grabs her hand, threading her fingers through hers and Henry’s eyes zero in on the action.

 

“I really wish I didn’t have to do this Emma.” He says quietly as he stares at them both with betrayal in his eyes. “But you need to believe.” And he shoves the entire pastry into his mouth as Regina rips herself away from Emma and rushes on over to him.

 

She doesn’t get to him in time and as that single bite of the pastry enters Henry’s mouth, he slumps to the ground, deathly pale and unconscious.

 

* * *

 

Emma immediately rushes to Henry’s side, helplessly calling his name as Regina trembles and sobs and is generally inconsolable.

 

Emma turns to her then, eyes steely as she stands and cradles Henry against her chest.

 

“There’s no time to waste.” Emma says sternly. “Come on!”

 

Regina follows her helplessly as Emma jogs from the house with Henry in her arms to Regina’s Mercedes. She places Henry in the backseat with Regina and jumps into the front seat, peeling away from the driveway in a manic rush.

 

Emma’s on the phone with the Storybrooke paramedics giving them details about Henry’s condition as Regina holds him closer to her body and sobs bitterly against his dark chocolate hair. She places kisses in a flurry against her little boy’s face, threading her fingers through his hair as she apologizes to him for failing him, for not being the best mother, for all the times she’s made him think the curse wasn’t real.

 

When they get to the hospital Emma immediately takes hold of him again and Regina follows the Sheriff down long familiar sterile corridors as she yells for help. They get him on a gurney, checking his vitals and within a few minutes they’ve set him up in a room and Regina’s yelling at Dr Whale to _do_ something.

 

“I can’t.” He says back calmly. “All Sheriff Swan told us was that he ate that pastry and we can’t detect any poisons or trace chemicals. His vitals are stable. He honestly just looks like he’s sleeping.”

 

No sooner had he said that Henry’s heart rate starts rapidly declining on the monitor and Emma roars orders at his staff, urging them to sedate him.

 

Regina’s never been so panicked in her entire life and she hates herself for what she’s done to her own son and no sooner had she had the thought had Emma stiffened at her side, clutching Henry’s book of fairytales and she isn’t even sure how the thing had gotten there.

 

Emma turns to her with such a deadly look that Regina freezes and she’s dragged roughly from the room into a closet.

 

“Sheriff now’s not the time for –”

 

“What did you do to him?!” Emma hisses in her face. “You did this! It’s true isn’t it! The curse! You’re the Evil –”

 

“Yes!” Regina cries and doesn’t even fight Emma’s hold on her wrists which turns decidedly bruising. “The curse exists. Magic is real.”

 

Emma shakes her head, a firm tight press to her lips as her eyes shimmer with tears. “Wake him up!”

 

“I can’t! That was the last of my magic here!” Regina shouts back, voice breaking on the last word. “That turnover was laced with a sleeping curse meant for you!” Regina hisses and Emma stumbles back.

 

“I was _leaving_ Regina. I was _leaving_! Why did you have to…” Emma turns her back to her then and Regina can’t see her expression clearly when she admits quietly that they need help.

 

Against her better judgement Regina recommends Rumpelstiltskin and Emma’s expression is suddenly unreadable when she turns to look at Regina.

 

“Let’s go find him.”

 

 

* * *

 

Gold seems delighted that they need his help and that Emma finally believes that the town is cursed. He tells them the only way young Henry can be freed from the curse – true love’s kiss.

 

Rumple also mentions the fact that he’d made a true love’s potion imbued with Snow White and Prince Charming’s true love. He sends them on a foolhardy mission to recover it in which he ends up double crossing them and stealing the egg the Savior had recovered with the potion by slaying the dragon beneath the clock tower.

 

Disheartened and out of options, they both return to the hospital where Dr Whale gives them both some very grim news.

 

The entire atmosphere is tense and Regina's heart is in shambles as Emma stumbles towards Henry's bed. But she can't bear to see him up close like that. She hadn't known exactly how unpredictable magic could be in this land without magic and she blames herself and falls into an abyss of despair so deep as helpless tears blur her vision.

 

She doesn't know exactly why she seeks comfort in Whale's arms but he holds onto her and its something as she allows her self loathing to take over and demolish every single reason she's given to convince herself over the years that she was not like her own mother. That she was a good mother to Henry. She doesn't even hear what Emma's telling Henry as she sobs openly too but Regina tries to focus on her voice as she tries to get her shaky breathing under control.

 

"I love you, Henry." Emma admits tearfully against Henry's temple and she leans forward to brush a kiss against their son's deathly pale forehead.

 

A second later, a burst of magic spills from her lips in a brilliant blast of light and Henry’s eyes reopen as he inhales a sharp breath.

 

It's something so surreal. Like a moment suspended in time. Regina remains rigid, frozen against Dr Whale's arms as that unmistakable rainbow light pulses through the room and bellows out in a wide beautiful arc that encompasses the entirety of Storybrooke.

 

And something inside of her _splinters_ right along with it.

 

She falls to her knees, chest heaving and there's that _tug_ in her chest again that becomes so painfully unbearable the longer she focuses on it. She grimaces and quickly scrambles to her feet, unable to stand the derisive sneers and disgruntled looks suddenly being sent her way from the nursing staff.

 

Emma turns to her, a disbelieving look stealing across her face even as she watches Henry practically come back from death's door.

 

Regina’s vision blurs with more tears as she finally allows herself the opportunity to rush over to Henry’s hospital bed side. She brushes a tentative shaky hand through his hair and can’t stop the sob that catches in her throat.

 

Dazed green lock with hers from across Henry's bed and Regina's entire head _spins_ again, some memories in her head taking on a foggy sepia outline the longer she gazes at the Savior.

 

And she sees a meadow sprawled out before her coupled with a younger version of Emma Swan standing on a slight incline. She's clad in her signature white tank top and a pair of weirdly blue pyjama bottoms with...yellow ducklings?

 

She blinks away the odd scene, trembles and is unable to even process the meaning of that as she tears her gaze away from Emma's. She manages a weak declaration of love to her pale son before she's hurriedly fleeing from the room and two pairs of identical forest green eyes follow her on the way out.

 


	3. Chapter 3

"Show me the most damaged parts of your soul, and I will show you how it still shines like gold."  
— Nikita Gill 

 

* * *

 

Regina isn't thinking logically as she shakily starts her car and tears away from the hospital curb. Her curse is broken. Broken by none other than Emma Swan who’d just shared true love’s kiss with the baby she’d given up for adoption...the same baby that Regina vaguely remembers _promising to help her raise?_

 

She groans, clutches her forehead as that pain lances through her skull again and curses the face of Emma Swan and _fears_ her.

 

Fears her as Henry's actual birth mother, breaker of the curse, _The Savior_. That fear takes over and actively tries suppressing those flashes in her mind of Emma's soft elven features highlighted in falling apple blossoms and warm golden tones.

 

In carefree giggling and long blonde princess curls that slipped through her own fingers. In eyes that shone, so soft and green like the forest and so very warm that her teenage self could barely breathe.

 

She pulls into her driveway in record time and hurries into the mansion, heels clicking against the tiled floors as she races to her study with Henry’s storybook she'd managed to steal from the hospital in hand.

 

The page she opens it to is the same one that had given her some reprieve when she’d seen it for the first time almost ten months ago. But now she has a little more context. It’s a little muddled in her mind but she remembers the feel of it, of Daniel's forehead pressed against hers after she'd doubled over in hysterics when she'd been abruptly snatched from that dream world with Emma.

 

It's vague enough, the book doesn't go into details but the book interprets it as Regina being distressed over their relationship. She remembers that day. The day Daniel was going to help her run away from the estate.

 

Then in comes Mother and the rest of the scene plays out as gruesome as ever. Mother plunging her hand into Daniel's chest and extracting his heart. Mother glancing over to Odette and holding the soul creature in a similar bind. Mother killing Odette and Daniel and leaving Regina to mourn the loss of her friend all the while feeling like half of her heart was also being crushed into dust.

 

Tears blur her vision as her memories of that day shift. She remembers Odette’s pained cries, her defiant attitude, her desperate attempts at fleeing Cora’s tight hold around her neck.

 

_The Swan is defiant, wings catching Cora in the face as she flails against Cora’s magically strengthened hands._

 

_"For heaven’s sake." Cora growls and then Odette is suspended in a choking hold, red tendrils of magic whispering across the feathers of her wings, turning forest green eyes a burning red. Regina heaves, feels her muscles seize then pull harsh and tight in her chest as she gasps, tears leaking out of her own eyes as Cora's magic incapacitates the soul creature._

 

_"I should have done this ages ago just like the first." Is the last thing Regina hears before her lungs collapse in her chest and she faintly registers something inside her that lurches against her ribs, snaps and crunches like magic, energy grating against her ribcage before she falls to the ground in the stables, unconscious._

 

She abruptly jerks herself out of the memory. Squeezes her eyes shut and tries to forget that all consuming pain that had careened her worryingly close to the point of death.

 

That memory was not as simple she once remembered.

 

It certainly wasn’t as the book makes it out to be. Not as simple as elegant script that reads: _Cora kills Daniel and Odette, starting her daughter along a dark and twisted path from whence she may never return._

 

Her hands tremble as she peers out of the window of her study, unnerved at her shifting memories. Unnerved that she’d indeed met Emma Swan before -- met her in dreams that should not have been possible to link them together. Dreams that had linked two people from two different realms for several months.

 

She catches sight of a purple cloud approaching in the distance at the corner of her eyes and she snaps out of her thoughts as she hurriedly throws opens the window, wondering if she’s indeed seeing correctly.

 

There, like a strange wonderful blessing is not a sight common to this magic shy world. Regina grins as it curls and bellows out, washing over the entirety of the newly awoken residents of Storybrooke who would surely be on her front porch within a matter of minutes.

 

The cloud brings with it the magic from the Enchanted Forest and Regina calms as she feels it stirring her own magic at a point within her chest and moving down towards the tips of her fingers. Magic that had lain dormant within her for twenty-eight long years.

 

* * *

 

A thick cloud of purple washes over every single person as it sweeps through the streets of Storybrooke. 

 

Emma’s in the middle of the crowded roadway outside of the hospital, Henry clutched tightly to her side as they’re caught up in a frenzy of chattering, shouts and demands from the residents of Storybrooke. They're all talking about the magic cloud, about the Evil Queen possibly getting her magic back, of slaughtering her for her crimes.

 

Snow White and Prince Charming, her parents, _her parents_ , she scoffs at the thought, pushing it far from her mind as she calls them by their cursed names in her head. They’re on one side practically molded to each other, desperately trying to placate the fears of their loyal subjects.

 

But it’s of no use. They’re all angry, illogical and disorientated, demanding the blood of the Evil Queen. Emma grimaces, shoots them all scathing looks as Henry shakes at her side and quietly inquires if they’d really kill Regina in cold blood.

 

She doesn’t know how to respond to him. Doesn’t know _T_ _he customs of_ _The Enchanted Forest_. She scoffs again and something within her, something defiant that rebels against all of this sudden new change _knows_ that she’s going to have a hard time seeing eye to eye with her _parents_.

 

Her feelings on the matter were currently overwhelming but for the sake of Henry, she wasn’t going to allow anyone to harm Regina. This wasn’t whatever medieval renaissance cliche they’d all tripped out of from and into this world. This was the real world and regardless of what their pasts dictated, things were done differently here.

 

She's uncomfortable with all the formality, people addressing Mary Margaret and David as _Your Highness_ and calling her  _Princess Emma_ and David and Mary Margaret _hugging_ her tightly and _cupping_ her face and Emma just can't take any of this bullshit seriously.

 

She pushes Henry into the arms of _her parents_  and races ahead as she tries to head off the crowd on their way to the Mayor's mansion.

 

She doesn’t know exactly how she’s going to get them all to adhere to what she was going to propose but she can't let them hurt Regina.

 

And so help her if anyone calls her _The Savior_ one more time, she’s going to hurt somebody.

 

* * *

 

Emma comes rushing through the angry mob crowded around Regina's house just as Dr. Whale grabs Regina's arm and slams her up against the doorway pillar.

 

"Now...where were we?" He hisses lowly in Regina's ear and Emma sees red.

 

"Let her go!" She growls fiercely. "Let her go!" 

 

"Why should I listen to you?" Whale hisses and she climbs the porch in quick long steps and yanks his hands from off of Regina.

 

"Because I am still Sheriff." She hisses right back into his cruel twisted face, subtly moving in front of Regina to shield her with her body. Whale's eyes narrow at the action. 

 

"And because she saved you. All of you!" David says as he comes sprinting through the crowds to Emma's aid with Mary Margaret and Henry in tow.

 

"And because no matter what Regina did, it does not justify this." Mary Margaret interjects.

 

"We are not murderers here." Emma finishes, fists clenched tightly as Whale moves forward in a bid to intimidate her.

 

"Well, we’re not from this world." He says lowly.

 

"Yeah, well, you’re in it now and you will abide by our rules." Emma says just as lowly, evenly. Whale scoffs but she doesn't have time for him any longer. She turns to regard Regina, eyes taking in every inch of her to make sure she hasn't been harmed in any way. When Emma's eyes get to hers, there's an underlying softness there that hadn't been there before. It shakes her and she gets trapped within those eyes and she just has to reach out and touch her. She tentatively places a hand on Regina's shoulder.

 

"Are you okay?" She asks softly. Regina nods mutely, eyes falling helplessly from hers to observe Henry pressed tightly against Mary Margaret and Emma can see the clear guilt warring within her. And the loathing she has for Mary Margaret also known as Snow White.

 

Whale makes a scene with David and the people jump to his princely aid in order to restrain him. He shrugs them off as Mary Margaret stands on the porch to address the disgruntled citizens.

 

"Regina’s death won’t provide any answers. She needs to be locked up. For her safety and, more importantly, for ours."

 

Regina's body tenses beneath Emma's touch and Emma allows her hand to fall away as the reality of the situation suddenly overwhelms them and Emma has no choice but to take Regina to the station's cells for her own safety.

 

* * *

 

"So, I’m a prisoner now." Regina glowers at them all from behind the bars of her cell and Emma hangs in the background totally at a lost of what to do.

 

"The curse is broken. Why didn’t we go back?" David takes the reigns of the conversation.

 

Regina sighs heavily. "Because there’s nothing to go back to. That land is gone."

 

"We should get to Gold." Mary Margaret says and they all turn to Emma expectantly, Henry still attached to David's leg. Emma just nods mutely, it's as good a plan as any, and she walks out of the office with them, feeling massively out of place and makes it to the door of the station when her feet absolutely refuses to go any further.

 

"I uh, mind if I stay here?" She asks, somewhat timidly. David and Mary Margaret pause on the sidewalk where they'd walked on ahead and spare each other worried looks.

 

"We just want to spend as much time as possible with you." Mary Margaret says, smiling so wide that Emma's heart hurts at how genuine it is. And she feels herself being forced into going with them. "We have to check out the state that the curse over the land has left our people in."

 

"But you all know this town. You've lived here for so long. You know no one's been harmed."

 

"That's still up for discussion. We need a census." David interjects.

 

"I already texted Ruby to watch over Henry for me so she's coming to get him." Emma says, ignoring Henry's little whine of displeasure at David's side. "I'll see you guys back at the loft." She assures instead and there's a whole uncomfortable moment where they all try to get her to go, even using Henry as an excuse. But Emma's stolid in her decision and they leave her to find the prawnbroker as Emma makes her way back into the holding area of the Sheriff's department.

 

Her mind is a whir of everything that's gone down within the last few hours in Storybrooke and she can't even seem to wrap her head around it. Suddenly her son had died and then she'd apparently true love kissed him back to life. Then she'd found her parents. Then Regina's life was in danger and she was apparently part of the reason Emma had grown up in foster care and --

 

She stills abruptly outside the door to the cells at the _voices_ she hears coming from inside the room.

 

"I could’ve killed her, but I didn’t." Regina spits harshly and Emma braces herself against the wall as the other person replies.

 

"Yeah, you did much worse than that. You kept her alive, so you could kill her when it suited you. A fate worse than death. Which, incidentally, is exactly what I’ve got in store for you." And that's unmistakably Gold's voice. She bristles, disengaging her gun from its holster at the threatening tone to his voice.

 

Regina yelps a second later and Emma barrels into the room, pistol at the ready just in time to catch a swirl of black smoke vanishing from the room. Regina looks up at her, stricken and a little pale and she trembles and struggles to pull down the sleeve of her blazer.

 

"What the fuck was that?!" Emma hisses, eyes scanning every inch of the room. "I heard Gold, where the hell is he?!"

 

"I thought all of you Charming bunch went off to see the Imp." Regina says. "And put that thing down before you hurt yourself."

 

Emma rolls her eyes but tucks the gun back into its holster as she walks on over to the cells. Her heart is whirring so much in her chest and she's just so overwhelmed. "What?" Regina asks sharply. 

 

"Where the fuck is Gold?"

 

"Do you see him here?" Regina retorts.

 

Emma bangs her fists against the cells, startling Regina. "My p-par David, Mary Margaret and Henry just went to see him, how the hell was he here? Where the hell is he now?"

 

Regina grits her teeth and stares into Emma's eyes and Emma can't for the life of her figure out what she's thinking. "He probably went back to his shop." She says. 

 

"What'd he do to you?" Emma asks.

 

"Basically threatened me but claim he didn't." Regina grimaces. "Typical Rumple. I imagine I don't have much time now."

 

"I'll be right back." Emma says, abruptly turning on her heel to strut out of the room and down the hall. She calls Ruby, thanking her for saying yes to taking Henry and urging her to keep him safe. 

 

"Emma." Ruby's tone is no longer light and nonchalant, it's something Emma notices immediately and her heart hammers at the potential loss of another friend. "My name's actually Red."

 

Emma blanches. "R-Right I-"

 

"It's okay, I'll still go by the name Ruby, It's grown on me and It's actually an alias your mom and I came up with. Hers was Mary Margaret." Ruby chuckles. "I actually prefer calling her Snow."

 

"I suddenly have the mental image of the both of you frolicking in flowers and playing with animals."

 

"We're both not as dainty as you may have been led to believe."

 

Emma snorts derisively. "She's freaking _Snow White_."

 

Ruby hums. "I know, I've seen this world's version of her. But trust me when I say that she can hold her own with a bow in a battle." Emma tries to imagine the mild mannered Mary Margaret battling with a bow and arrow -- and promptly breaks down into laughter. "Did I mention I'm also your godmother?"

 

"Oh fuck off, now I know this one is a giant lie. You're way younger than me!"

 

Ruby laughs too and then promptly sighs heavily. "I wasn't always. If I add those cursed years I'm a whopping forty nine year old werewolf."

 

"W-Werewolf." Emma stutters. "Do you mean Red as in Little Red Riding Hood?"

 

"Haven't gone by that name since I was a girl." Ruby hums, Emma can hear the amusement in her tone. "Weren't expecting me to be the werewolf in my own story, were you?"

 

"No." Emma says. "But that just hit me again too, you're all fairytale characters."

 

"But also as real as you are." Ruby rebuts. "I imagine you're very overwhelmed by all of this."

 

Emma pauses in the doorway of the storage room and slumps against the wall as she flips on the light switch, bathing the file cabinets in warm light.

 

"You have no idea." She whispers lowly. "I feel so lost in it all I...I just." She shakes her head. "I don't know where I fit in with all of this."

 

"Well, you're the princess." Ruby quips and Emma snorts again. "Yeah you're right, I laughed earlier too when I thought of you in frilly puffy dresses dancing through fields of flowers and singing about finding your prince."

 

"Asshole." Emma chuckles and Ruby laughs right along with her.

 

"Snow and Charming are out and about so I imagine you're with The Queen?"

 

And Emma's face burns as she shuffles forward, knowing that Red now knew what Ruby knew about her and Regina. "I...yeah."

 

"Emma." Ruby's voice is low and warning. "Don't let your attraction to her blindside you, she's very dangerous." At those words a sudden slamming of a door down the corridor grabs her attention especially when its followed by a piercing scream. "What the hell was that?!" Ruby hisses in her ear.

 

"I don't know but I'll have to call you back." Emma says and quickly ends the call as she launches herself at the keys dangling from their holes on the wall and shoves them into her pocket. 

 

She dashes out of the room and back down to the holding area where the door's been ripped off of its hinges and rests in a metal clump a few feet away.

 

"Regina!" She yells, ducking through the door to see the Mayor kneeling on the floor of her cell, head tipped back, arms dangling helplessly at her sides as some weird looking ghost creature seems to be sucking the life out of her. "HEY!" She yells at it. 

 

The creature turns towards her then, giving her its faceless stare as she pulls out her gun and starts emptying bullets at it. 

 

The bullets go right through the creature and it screeches and the solid table in the room rises with a sudden gust of whirling wind. Emma's too late to react when a second later she's being hurtled out of the room and crushed against the wall in the corridor with the heavy table. She slumps to the ground beneath its weight, winded, and struggles as she pushes it off, shakily getting to her knees and using the wall to stand up.

 

The creature cries out again and this time Emma notices Regina lying fully on the ground and she immediately looks around her for something to use. 

 

She picks up an aerosol can and a lighter laying haphazardly on the ground at her feet obviously having fallen out of the table and runs back into the room.

 

"Suck on _this_ buddy." She growls as she presses down on the nozzle and strikes the lighter in front of it. It creates a large blinding flamethrower, one that actually manages to _burn_ the wraith itself and it screeches in agony and smashes the windows on its mad dive out of the building.

 

Emma immediately throws the items aside and fishes the keys out of her pocket, unlocking the jail cell and sliding it open.

 

"What the fuck was that fucking weird looking Dementor shit?!" She practically yells, gingerly wrapping an arm around the Mayor's waist and helping her to sit down on the cot as the adrenaline still coursing through her from the encounter leaves her body vibrating with nervous energy.

 

"A wraith, Miss Swan."

 

"Back to Miss Swan again? After everything we've been through?"

 

Regina scoffs, daintily rubbing her neck which Emma belatedly realizes had gone a raw flaming red. "If I recall correctly, you were ready to leave."

 

"Because this town is fucking insane!" Emma yells, body vibrating with so much pent up energy that she gets up and begins to pace outside of the cell. "Now explain to me, the fuck was that thing that almost killed you."

 

"The cretin – the wraith – is one of the most dangerous creatures in all the known lands. A soul sucker. According to legend, it marks its victims and removes their souls – damning them for all eternity."

 

"Did I kill it?"

 

"Kill it? No, it’s regenerating. It’ll be back. It doesn’t stop until it devours its prey – me."

 

Emma sucks in a sharp breath. "You said Gold marked you. Is this what you meant?" Regina just nods and Emma gives a sharp laugh. "Ruby's a werewolf, an actual fucking werewolf. I had to slay a damn dragon open to get Gold's double crossing ass a fucking potion and now you're telling me there are actual soul suckers out there??!" Emma's eyes go wide as she focuses back on Regina. "IS HARRY POTTER REAL?"

 

Regina scoffs. "Don't be daft, Miss Swan. That, I can assure you is most certainly made up."

 

Emma pouts miserably, tucking her thumbs into her jeans. "Well that just sucks."

 

Regina rolls her eyes, wincing a second later as she clutches her head. Emma immediately notices and makes her way back into the holding cell.

 

"Come on, we're getting out of here." Emma says, holding a hand out to Regina. Regina eyes it wryly, arching an eyebrow up at Emma.

 

"This is known as treason, _princess_." Regina quips airily.

 

And Emma's face burns fiercely at the nickname, one she'd reserved solely for Regina herself. "I'm not a fucking princess." Emma bites back fiercely, eyes boring intensely into Regina's as she pulls her to her feet. "If I have to have a title, I'd preferred to be called a White Knight."

 

* * *

 

After Emma drops Regina home and advises her to stay inside -- to which Regina promptly rolls her eyes and insists that she can hold her own, Emma makes her way back to the loft.

 

She has time to have a well needed shower where her introspective thoughts overwhelm her so much that she slams the water off and goes to her room. She changes fairly quickly into another of her jeans and tank top combinations and has just enough time to shovel down some comfort food before _her parents_ and Henry come barreling into the loft.

 

Before they can overwhelm her with the state of their kingdom, Emma recounts what happened at the cells with Regina to them.

 

"Is she okay?" Henry interjects softly, the worry palpable in his voice even as he tries to act all nonchalant about it. 

 

"Well, she said she was." Emma assures him. "And I believe her."

 

"Did you kill it?" Mary Margaret asks, shuffling around the kitchen as David falls in at her side to help.

 

Emma shakes her head grimly. "No, it’s regenerating. It’ll be back. It doesn’t stop until it devours its prey."

 

"So, how do we kill it?" 

 

"There’s no way. Can’t kill something that’s already dead." Regina says, appearing in a whirl of purple smoke directly in the middle of the loft. 

 

David exaggeratedly holds a knife out to her, placing Mary Margaret and dragging Henry bodily behind him. "How the hell did you get out?!" He hisses. 

 

"Oh I uh, did I forget to mention that I didn't think leaving here there would be the best option?" Emma says sheepishly. "And you can use your magic now?" She addresses Regina whose eyes settle on her magnetically. She nods and Emma shakes her head. "God, what a day, I think I need another lifetime to process all of this."

 

"How did you regain your magic?" Mary Margaret asks, removing herself from David's side and instead standing protectively in front of Emma. Emma rolls her eyes and plops herself down on the couch, taking a bowl of David's popcorn with her.

 

"I'm not at liberty to discuss that." Regina snipes. "I came to see Henry." She says, throwing a disdainful look at the Charmings which softens considerably when she sees her son's head peaking out from behind David's back. Henry immediately rushes to Emma's side, clutching onto her tightly even as his eyes roam over his mother. "I just wanted to bring you your favourite book and your blanket." Regina says softly, showing the bundle clutched tightly in her hand.

 

Emma could see her hands shaking from where she sat and she nudged Henry, urging him to take it. His tiny brows furrow as he marches on over to his mother, mouth set into a firm tight line as he whispers something too low for anyone but Regina to hear.

 

"Yes, I'm fine mi corazón." Regina says softly and Emma's heart melts at the softness in Regina's eyes that only turns to sorrow as Henry yanks the bundle away from her arms and nods stoically before turning on his heels. He marches up the ladder to Emma's room and with that the atmosphere turns decidedly frosty once more.

 

"So you escaped death by wraith." David raises the topic disdainfully and Regina rolls her eyes.

 

"We need a plan to find it." Emma interjects.

 

"And then what?" Regina says. "You're missing the point. The wraith can't be killed." 

 

"Then, we have a problem." Emma says grimly, making sure that David and Mary Margaret understood just how dire this situation was.

 

"No, we don’t. Regina does." David says simply. Apparently he didn't get the dire part.

 

"David?" Mary Margaret addresses her husband. "You want to let her die?"

 

David shrugs. "Why not? Then it goes away and then, we’re safe."

 

"That’s quite the example you’re setting for your princess, there." Regina glowers. Emma rolls her eyes at the moniker, glaring at Regina who simply smirks obnoxiously in her direction.

 

"No, you don’t get to judge us." David growls.

 

"We're the good guys, we don't leave people to die." Emma says, playing on their hero card. She understood on some level that Regina was the Evil Queen. Hell, she'd read Henry's book of unhappy fairytales cover to cover. But the woman standing in the middle of the loft straining to keep her anger in check and shivering slightly had just come to her sworn enemies for help. And if that didn't scream change, then Emma didn't know what did.

 

"Let me ask you something. Where do you think that thing came from?" Regina asks. "Gold. The same imp you went to for help."

 

"I made a promise to Henry. She’s not dying." Emma says and she can practically feel how visibly uncomfortable David and Mary Margaret were with the entire situation and can't even bring herself to think of what they'd say should they find out about that thing she and Regina had between them.

 

Her face promptly flushes and she reluctantly puts the idea out of her mind.

 

"If it can’t be killed, what do you suggest?" Mary Margaret asks meekly. 

 

"Send it somewhere it can’t hurt anyone." Regina says. "You up for a little quest, princess?" She asks Emma, that little smile daring to tug at the corner of her lips when Emma glowers at her and marches over.

 

Emma points a finger at her. "First of all, _knight_. I'm a White Knight. And second, I guess I am since the rest of my social life seemed to fly out the window since I popped into this town."

 

* * *

 

 The next day Regina takes her down into her vault. It's a dusty place situated within the confines of Regina's father's mausoleum and if that didn't up the creep factor on this little expedition, the two coffins sure did. One of which apparently had Regina's father.

 

Emma's eyes follow the woman as she pushes the coffin aside, revealing a secret passageway that led underground. She barely even reacts as she leads the way into that disable passageway and Emma distinctly remembers how fond the princess was of her father. She has questions. How did he die? When did he die? What became of her mother? Did Regina even remember that she and Emma had met before Storybrooke?

 

"Did Henry really ask you to protect me?" Regina asks quietly, breaking Emma out of her intrusive thoughts.

 

"Yes." Emma says as her eyes take in the stuffy confines of the vault. The place is well organized -- just insanely dusty, and Emma wonders at the little trinkets on the shelves and walls as Regina goes into a compartment and pulls out a hat.

 

A very familiar purple hat. One that she was almost killed to replicate.

 

"The hat. You had it all along."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"That’s Jefferson’s hat."

 

"Oh." Regina pauses. "Yes."

 

"Why do you have it?"

 

"Insurance."

 

"You separated him from his daughter." Emma says and Regina just sighs.

 

"Side effect of the curse but yes, I've done a multitude of damning things, Miss Swan."

 

"So Henry's book." Emma says, eyes locking with unreadable dark ones. "It's true?"

 

Regina presses her lips tightly together, crumpling the hat between her hands. "It's...a biased compilation of stories told from the perspectives of the heroes."

 

"I saw that picture with you and Daniel in it, at the stables." Emma says softly, voicing the name of the boy who was Regina's only friend -- except the book had painted them as more, called him Regina's first love, and as Regina stiffens, Emma supposes it was true. Regina's eyes blaze with rage, with sorrow, with vengeance as she stares helplessly at her curled fists and doesn't deign Emma worthy of a reply.

 

Emma wants to ask what happened that day, what happened at the stables now that she knows it was real -- very real. But Regina's entire body just trembles and Emma takes a step towards her, carefully unfurling Regina's fists and taking the hat between her own hands as Regina looks up at her. She looks so lost and forlorn -- Emma wants to kiss her. 

 

But she steps back abruptly from Regina, not knowing exactly where they stood, feeling her heart quiver in beats that just begged her to ask Regina about their shared past. Ask her if she remembered her. If she remembered admitting to Emma that she was falling for her. And if she did why did the book say she fell for Daniel instead? Did she really fall for Daniel instead of Emma? 

 

Regina scrunches up her face and flicks her hands and Emma's taken out of the moment as she regards her pensively.

 

"What are you doing?"

 

"Dammit. It's not working."

 

"What?"

 

"My magic." Regina hisses. "It's gone."

 

"What do you mean gone?"

 

Regina rolls her eyes. "Magic is different in this world. It comes and goes for me, I've been having trouble fully accessing it." She gives a particularly loud frustrated groan. "I don't have time for this!"

 

Emma grabs her hand, ignoring the sharp glare it gets her in response. "Come on then, let's go."

 

* * *

 

 

They meet Mary Margaret and David back in a spare open room in Town Hall decked out with brooms for improvised torches.

 

"I know it’s old fashioned, but so am I." David says and Regina throws him a silently judge-y look. He rolls his eyes and hands Emma a spare broom and together they all spread out at the entrances and exits to the room, waiting for the wraith.

 

"So. How does it work?" Emma asks from her position at the windows closest to Regina.

 

"It will open a portal to The Enchanted Forest. All we have to do is send the wraith in there."

 

"I don’t understand. I thought our land was gone?" Mary Margaret says, emptying a bottle of alcohol along a path in the room.

 

"It is. But, sending it to a place that no longer exists…Well, that’s banishing it to oblivion."

 

The lights in the room begin to flicker and there's a grating squeal as they hear the wraith approaching. David flicks the lighter and the three of them light their torches.

 

"Regina." Emma says as Regina just seems to be standing against her desk, holding the hat in her hands. She closes her eyes and her magic unfurls at her fingertips in tiny swirls but it only manages to make the hat slightly spin.

 

"I’m trying." Regina says just as panicked as the doors to the room burst open.

 

"The dementor's here!" Emma announces, voice a little high pitched as she brandishes her fiery broom. " _Regina_."

 

"I know." Regina hisses. 

 

A battle of wits ensues as David and Mary Margaret try to keep the wraith at bay. They seem to be antagonizing it with their little torches and the wraith lets out another squeal that sends them both hurtling into a bookcase.

 

"David!" Mary Margaret yells as David throws his flaming broom and sets the path of alcohol leading to the wraith on fire. The creature squeals.

 

"Hurry!" David yells.

 

"It’s not working!" Regina shouts back. "Emma it isn't working! Magic's just too different here." She shakes her head grimly. "I can't."

 

Emma marches on over to Regina, determination burning in her eyes as she thinks of taking that hat and just tearing it apart herself. She grabs Regina’s shoulder and that feeling within her chest seems to tug again, expanding outwards in an expelled breath from her lungs and all too suddenly that hat Regina's clutching starts to spin. 

 

Regina lets it fall to the ground and it creates a giant purple vortex just as the wraith gets passed David and charges towards Regina.

 

"Regina!" Emma shouts and pushes Regina out of the way, causing the wraith to fall through the portal. However, on the way down, it grabs Emma’s ankle and suddenly she'd being dragged through into the portal. Her mother jumps in to the rescue a second later and they both hurtle through the unknown, not even having time to flinch before the impact with the very real very solid ground in The Enchanted Forest hits them.

 

That’s not the only reason Emma has trouble breathing – the very air here suddenly feels ten times heavier on her chest and a shadow at her side has now solidified into an actual mammoth sized panther that’s currently breathing down her neck.

 

Emma won't admit it, but she passes out from fear.

 

* * *

 

David blames her for Emma and Snow falling into the portal.

 

Regina sneers at him and sends him some well placed verbal barbs about him being a fake prince and manages to poof herself home just before he rushes at her in a rage.

 

She goes into her study and digs up all of the magic books she's had hidden for years and spends the evening reading up on portals and realm travelling and hates how little that garners.

 

Apparently realm hopping is only possible with magic beans, magic hats that were destroyed by idiotic princes who stupidly lit indoor fires, mermaids or true love. The last one downright pisses her off and she slams the book shut and heads straight for the liquor cabinet. She pours herself a generous amount of scotch, almost to the limit of the tumbler and sinks into one of the comfortable leather chairs by the fire.

 

She closes her eyes, exhaling in an attempt to rid herself of the unease lingering in the pit of her stomach. Her thoughts filter back to Miss Swan and she takes an unladylike gulp of her scotch.

 

She was doing all of this for Henry. And yet her mind blissfully ventures back to the first time she'd met Emma as a teenager. 

 

Those interactions had to have been real...there were months of interactions between them that were still curiously unfurling within Regina's mind. But Emma never once talked about them. She also never talked about a soul creature and Regina wonders if she still has Bagheera. She remembers the dark panther fondly and as the stress of the day leaves, she allows one of those memories to play around in her mind.

 

_"He likes you more than he likes me!" Emma insists, pointing up at the panther she'd been calling for the past few minutes -- she was being promptly ignored._

 

_Regina snickers. "Give the poor thing a break, he has to deal with you every day."_

 

_Emma laughs, so full of joy and mischief as she calls up at Bagheera. "You're my soul creature, now get down here I promise we're not gonna treat you like a horse and try to ride you again."_

 

_Bagheera just turns his head away and Regina laughs. "Oh Bagheera." She calls sweetly and the panther turns to her with wide eyed adoration and practically mewls as she sends him one of those cute air kisses. He closes his eyes and swiches his tail and Regina's heart warms._

 

_Emma flies clean over the log at the base of the tree and playfully tackles Regina to the ground causing them to roll down the little incline and land in a pile of limbs in the meadow of flowers, scattering a host of rainbow butterflies into the air._

 

_"Emma!" Regina giggles and Emma brushes her nose with her own and twines their fingers together._

 

_"Bagheera might be jealous, I don't know for sure." Emma says seriously, a tiny smirk curving around the edge of her lips as the panther in question growls in response from his perch in the tree above them._

 

_"You're my favourite, Bagheera!" Regina calls up to the panther teasingly, watching in intrigue as he swishes his tail back and forth and whines contentedly._

 

_Emma gasps, mock outraged. "I resent that, princess." She pouts pitifully. Regina's heart flutters as she disentangles their fingers and frames Emma's face between her palms as she stares into those curiously wondrous emerald eyes she's come to adore._

 

_"He's my favourite panther, but you're my favourite girl." She says impishly and Emma's cheeks turn an adorable rosy red she tries to hide by leaning down to kiss Regina on the nose. Only, apparently it was a form of distraction as Emma's wandering hands tickle her sides and Regina giggles and squirms beneath her._

 

 _"I better be your only girl." Emma whispers playfully against her lips and Bagheera chooses that moment to land on Emma's back, a soft solid weight that startles her and she yelps. Emma turns towards him and Bagheera swishes his long tail against her face and hops off and Regina pulls her down into a warm kiss before they both erupt in uncontrollable giggles_ _that suddenly get way too intense to keep their lips together._

 

Regina shakes herself out of the happy memory and her melancholy returns with full force. She downs another tumbler of scotch and grimaces at the burn to the back of her throat as her eyes tear a little. She doesn’t want to think about Emma again.  Regina was hitting dead end after dead end with these books and the Sheriff was likely lost to the whims of The Enchanted Forest, never to be seen again.

 

Regina should be happy, she should be rejoicing because the one who was meant to defeat her had actually been dealt with - after she'd recklessly endangered her own life to save Regina's. But her memories are shifting again, merging with the new ones that turn Emma from dorky uncoordinated teen orphan who could barely ride a horse to Henry's actual pain in the arse birth mother to certifiable Sheriff with the monstrous yellow car. And Regina's heart's doing that pitiful quivering thing again and she growls and debates taking the thing out of her chest because she doesn't want to remember or think about Emma Swan.

 

Doesn’t want to think about tight jeans, cheap cotton tank tops and awful red leather jackets.

 

Doesn’t want to think of the slender sinewy curves and limbs of the woman they encase.

 

Doesn’t want to think of ruffled blonde princess curls and smoldering green eyes that look so primal in the heat of arousal.

 

Doesn’t want to think of the way her magic practically sung through her veins when Emma mysteriously activated her magic.

 

And she most certainly doesn’t dare let her thoughts linger on kisses as potent as the alcohol running through her veins or skin that scorches hers with an intensity akin to alighting it with fire.

 

Emma Swan has nothing over her.

 

* * *

 

 

That night she dreams of the old world. She slinks down paths she knows like the back of her hand, thundering over old castle grounds that look different now that the land seems to be charred, burnt to a crisp where civilization used to be.

 

She hears chattering nearby, curious chattering and voices that sound familiar and she rushes towards them, growing steadily more solid as she ventures onto the tiny path curving around a tall mountain. And on the side of it she sees Emma Swan and her breath catches in her throat and suddenly her own feet are moving of their own accord and she's hovering over Emma, heart beating fast as Emma groans and those beautiful green eyes suddenly peer up at her. And Emma sees her. _Sees_ her and gasps audibly and suddenly Regina's jerking up in her sleep, gripping the bed sheets so tightly a tiny flame sparks between her fingers.

 

She puts it out immediately, clutching her forehead and dwelling for long hours on the dream.

 

* * *

 

 

When Emma comes to it's to Snow's soothing humming, a cool washcloth pressed to her forehead and a dry mouth. She groans, shielding her eyes from the fierce torment of the sun and blinking up into soft motherly green eyes.

 

She stiffens eyes shifting slightly around Mary Margaret to look for the panther and Mary Margaret pulls back a little.

 

"Oh Emma I was so worried about you." Mary Mar - Snow White says, eyes a little teary and the worry practically palpable in her voice.

 

Emma grimaces. "Where's the panther?"

 

Snow looks confused. "What panther?"

 

"The panther. The one that.." She shakes her head. "Never mind, where the hell are we?"

 

 "We're in a bit of a situation." Snow informs her ruefully. 

 

Emma immediately sits up, taking note of the tiny tent they were in, that pain in her head still hammers against her skull and when she lifts a hand to run it through her hair, she immediately notices the heavy weighted shackles that bind her hands and feet.

 

"What the hell?" She hisses and Snow sighs ruefully.

 

"We were captured by bandits." And here Emma's day just went from bad to worse. "They think we sent the wraith to kill Prince Philip."

 

* * *

 

Emma and Snow are brought before a council of bandits. The leader, a Chinese woman with a broadsword hanging from her waist instructs them to identify themselves.

 

Upon learning the nature of their royal identities the woman identifies herself as Mulan.

 

"As in the great Chinese warrior Mulan? Disney's Fa Mulan??" Emma asks a little excitedly and the warrior completely ignores her in favor of addressing a fair skinned redhead who identifies herself as Princess Aurora. "Sleeping Beauty." Emma muses. "No fucking way."

 

Snow nudges her in the side and she immediately falls silent as everyone bows to them and to the princess and they get their shackles removed and move on to the 'war tent' where they discuss the state of The Enchanted Forest.

 

Apparently the place had been charred to black earth where Regina's curse had razed the land and only people who were on the outskirts of it had curiously remained unaffected -- including her mother Cora who'd returned and was accompanied by the fierce Captain Hook.

 

"She's plotting something big." Mulan finishes grimly as Emma rubs her wrists and stews in silent contempt for this Cora who she'd never seen before. She had no doubt she probably had a scheme in place -- the woman seemed like the true evil in Regina's story.

 

They form a plan to retrieve some magic beans to get back to Storybrooke before all the crazy erupted in the forest and get permission to wander into the rest of the camp grounds.

 

That night as she lays awake within the confines of her threadbare sleeping bag, Emma shivers and her mind ventures back to Regina and Henry and an overwhelming sadness suffuses her chest. She sighs out heavily, nibbles anxiously on her lower lip and glances at Mary Mar - her mother. "Did you ever..." She trails off abruptly then, grimacing at the question she was about to ask.

 

"What?" Snow says, turning onto her side on the too hard ground and ancient version of a sleeping bag to regard her. And Emma feels all kinds of awkward at the soft mothering look in the woman's eyes...and she _just can't do this_.

 

"Promise me you won't laugh MM." She gives the woman a stern look, falling back on old habits she'd use on her friend.

 

And damn the woman for being intuitive to a fault. She gives Emma a tiny smile, longing and painful and Emma's heart quivers as she builds this wall between them that leaves her aching.

 

"I promise." Snow whispers tentatively, ignoring the fact that she'd have leaned over to Emma by now and held her hands and the woman would have opened up.

 

Instead they fall in this weird limbo until Emma abruptly clears her throat.

 

"Um." She starts, forehead creasing as she formulates the question but then decides to just blurt it out. "Did you ever meet David...before you met him in real life?"

 

"I don't understand."

 

"Well you're soulmates...right?" She glances at the bluebird that had been hovering just above her mother's shoulder from the moment they'd landed in the forest. At the mention of it, Snow pat's the thing affectionately on the head and it flies off.

 

"Right." Snow says.

 

"Did your um, did you ever dream about him?"

 

And the woman chuckles. "You know how we met each other, I stole from him and he caught me. Quite literally, I mean I was hauled into a net. I was an outlaw and he a prince.

 

"Right but...in the other world, did you ever dream about him -- meet him in your dreams."

 

Snow just shakes her head and Emma's heart plummets even further. "I know the other world has a shy belief in soulmates Emma." She says softly. "But you're from our world and I know we haven't seen your soul creature since you landed here but I believe that your soulmate is out there just waiting for you to find them."

 

And as Emma looks over to her mother and sees the affection and maybe just a bit of inside knowledge shine through her eyes, she wonders if Ruby had spilled her secret to Mary Margaret before the curse had broken.

 

She abruptly clears her throat, smiles at her mother and pulls the covers tighter to her body.

 

* * *

 

It's a bit hard not to just go magic crazy and rampage through the town. Especially since her magic comes streaming back in waves that practically scream at her for blocking them for twenty eight long years. Regina's going stir crazy cooped up within her house hiding. Hiding the fact that her hands shake when she tries to do the simplest spells or that the rules for magic in this world are so different she'd have difficulties defending herself if one of those ingrates took it upon themselves to take her out.

 

She could actually die.

 

And she's restless. Hates that the Charmings could just swoop in and usurp Henry's affections within the blink of an eye. It's ridiculous, she's raised him for ten consistent years which are suddenly discounted in their eyes as David holds a petty trinket of a sword against her throat and she's forced to watch her son pack all of his clothes a few days later, the clear cut loathing in his eyes doing her in more than the deadly sword pressed against her juggler.

 

"Grandpa, all done." Henry calls and David looks over at him. Regina stews in silent contempt at the ease between them as he shoulders Henry's backpack.

 

"Don't hurt her." She hears Henry whisper and David glares at her for one last second, removes the sword and swaggers out of the house.

 

Henry remains a few seconds longer looking for one of his handheld devices.

 

"Bottom drawer, file cabinet." She says, meekly. Henry cuts her a glare, knowing very well that she'd hidden it from him a few nights before.

 

He dashes into the study, carelessly rummaging through drawers he'd previously had limited access to and returns moments later, the handheld gaming device cradled against his chest.

 

He turns towards the door, and Regina holds herself back, curls sharp nails into her own palms and prays for the strength not to launch herself at him and breakdown in his arms.

 

Henry pauses in the foyer, eyes catching hers as he wars with his final words to her. Eventually he settles on something scathing, and Regina recoils as the words drops from his mouth. "I hope you're not turning back to your _evil_ ways." He says, tiny and spiteful and so unlike the little boy she'd raised. "We're allies only until you help us get my _mom_  and my grandma back."

 

* * *

 

 

Regina starts visiting Dr. Hopper again. Hoping beyond all hope that the cricket could give her some sound advice as she wallows in despair over losing Henry and Emma.  

 

At first, the man is a bit apprehensive. But he mellows out soon and Regina talks to him stiltedly about her current living arrangements.

 

He offers some unhelpful advice and pokes holes at her parenting methods and she storms out of his office in a huff two and a half minutes later after dubbing the entire session a waste of her time.

 

* * *

 

 

Regina slinks after Emma and Snow, keeping them in sight as they leave that small camp and venture off into those dark twisting roads littered with bandits and ruffians. 

 

She watches from a distance, always curiously from the shadows, curling back when Emma seems to notice her presence. And she always does. She seems to have a sixth sense about it and it unnerves Regina. Especially since she was convinced that this wasn't a dream and that she was actually _in_ The Enchanted Forest with the pair as a tag along to their misadventures.

 

The next night when she goes to bed, Emma and Snow get accosted by two ogres and the foolish Sheriff pulls out her gun to shoot the thing. It makes no impact whatsoever and as a big burly ogre palm hurtles towards Emma, Regina springs from the shadows and tackles her to the ground causing the palm to narrowly miss her.

 

The Sheriff stares into her eyes that seem to see deep into her soul and as Emma raises her hand to touch her, Regina panics and runs away.

 

They apparently survived the ogre attack because the next day they reach a decimated village littered with rotting corpses. It's the foulest scent to ever grace Regina's sensitive nose and she watches from afar as they capture a man. But not just any man -- a man with a hook that Regina knows too well -- Captain Hook.

 

She's immediately on her guard, watching his interactions with Emma and Snow from her perch in the tree above them and hearing herself growl menacingly as he starts making passes at the Sheriff.

 

It's something that grates on her nerves especially since Emma seems to want to just ignore him and not punch him in the face.

 

The following day they come to the base of a bean stalk and Regina overhears their conversation from close by -- they were looking for a bean. Emma ends up seeing her again but she doesn't bring any attention to Regina, instead, she directs Hook on some tiny mission to get berries and while he's distracted, she comes over to the base of the tree.

 

Regina looks down at her, eyes roving over every inch of the Sheriff and taking stock of the many little bruises that littered her hands. Regina frowns, also not liking that deep scar that had been slashed across Emma's face by one of those ruffians they'd encountered within the forest.

 

Her own eyes lock with emerald for long moments and her heart inflates as Emma's eyes shimmer with tears and she raises a trembling hand skywards as if she could extend it that far up to reach Regina.

 

"I missed you so much, Bagheera." Emma whispers softly and when the shock of that admission finally registers, Regina finds herself waking up.

 

* * *

 

 

The other set of dreams from the old world come too and Regina's helpless against these cause they're memories -- ones she's hidden so deep within her subconscious that it only took offhandedly remembering her mother that day to trigger her dreams in the night. 

 

_"You've been out for six days." Henry Sr says, brushing a comforting hand through her dark hair. "You nearly died."_

 

_And Regina trembles, caught in her father's caring embrace and his eyes and her heart hurts as she remembers her soul creature and Daniel and...she struggles against that fog building in her mind but its seems all consuming and she whimpers pathetically as that sharp pain lances through her skull._

 

_"Oh hush, child." Cora interjects from the room over and the putrid scent coming from whatever vile concoction she was brewing for Regina in the other room hits her fiercely and her sensitive stomach wants to rebel. "I'm well aware of the limitations of my magic. Had killing that obnoxious soul creature killed you I would have known."_

 

_Regina growls, hands clenched at her sides, eyes sharp, fear and loathing swirling in a contemptuous mixture as her mother comes back into the room, potion at the ready to administer to her._

 

_"Mills women have no need of the travesty of soul creatures. Soulmates are a point of weakness to exploit for the gullible."_

 

_"What did you do to me?" Regina whimpers._

 

_"Merely got rid of the distraction." Cora replies, opening the potion and inspecting its contents thoroughly. "That awful leather clad woman's lucky her magic saved her from me." She murmurs lowly._

 

_And Regina's head spins, memories clouding and shifting and then she gasps. "Daniel."_

 

_Cora sneers. "Yes the unworthy trollop of a stable hand probably died unnecessarily cause apparently you were with the woman this whole time."_

 

_Regina bristles, clutching her chest as she timidly but defiantly glares at her mother and she can't understand why she's going off about some woman Regina can barely remember. "He was a good person. He didn't deserve what you did to him."_

 

_"Spare me." Cora sniffs haughtily, tipping Regina's chin in preparation to give her the vile potion. Regina jerks her head away._

 

_"I don't understand." She wails. "He was innocent, he did nothing but be my friend."_

 

_"Bonds like those are an inconvenience unless formed to better one's station. How many times must I tell you that Regina?" Cora says as she roughly holds Regina's chin between her thumb and forefinger. "That stray soul creature was the biggest inconvenience, I merely did you a favour."_

 

 _"I_ hate _you." Regina glowers, tears slipping down her cheeks and pooling helplessly beneath her chin. Cora tsks and brushes a hand through her hair and Regina's never wished that she could wield magic more than in this very moment as Cora peers down at her, smug and satisfied._

 

_"Oh honey." She coos. "Now you're just like me. Free to take whomever you please. We are not bound by these silly notions of soulmates. We have no need of them."_

 

That dream was the last straw, and when Regina jerks up from her sleep well before dawn, she gets herself ready in as little time as possible and recklessly drives her Mercedes down Maine street. She enters the Pawn Shop in a storm, the door swaying violently on its hinges as she storms over to the counter.

 

"I need you to tell me about my Mother." She hisses.

 

Archie's techniques had been working. But with the curse breaking she's had a lot of memories shifting around in her head and with the return of that dream and seeing Cora in the enchanted forest, she's left uneasy, tension rattling off of her body in waves.

 

"What did she do to me?" Regina practically cries. The pawnbroker merely raises an eyebrow, a cruel smile twitching at the corner of his lips, a telltale that he knew something. It grated on Regina's nerves. "Speak _Imp_."

 

"Oh come now, your majesty, surely you can figure it out for yourself? She killed your soul creature."

 

"I already know that." She says impatiently, planting her hands firmly down on the counter as she leans in. "Odette hasn't been around for decades."

 

"Oh I wasn't referring to the swan, deary." He smiles, a little maniacal as he swipes a duster along the over packed cupboard containing a host of his magical little trinkets.

 

"I don't have time for this." Regina says icily and she turns for the door. She freezes in the doorway at his next few words. 

 

"I was referring to your panther."

 

And that sentence is enough to shatter the rest of Regina's composure and she poofs herself home and doesn't come out even when Henry returns a few hours later for some more of his clothes and books.

 

* * *

 

 

A few nights later Regina rejoins the Sheriff on her adventures. This time starring the handless wonder.

 

Captain Hook thinks he's way too irresistible. It's borderline ridiculous just how much he manages to swagger when he walks, leering at Emma when she glares and making misogynistic comments about women that make Regina want to hurt him. They make a reluctant alliance, climb a beanstalk and Regina's had enough of his chattering and obnoxious flirting for Emma's sake to last a lifetime. She hovers uneasily on the outskirts of their mini adventure and is pleased when Emma lulls him into a false sense of security and essentially traps him in the giant's house, dooming him to a terrible fate.

 

It's cruel, but Regina thinks he probably deserves it.

 

Emma just about manages to get the bean back to Snow and they journey towards the dried up Lake Nostos when they're accosted by a very familiar face and Regina draws back in fear as her mother's cackles fill the air.

 

" _You_ again." Cora hisses as if she knows Emma's face specifically. And how would she? She's never seen Emma before. "Where is my Regina?"

 

"Away from you where she belongs." Emma hisses and Regina doesn't know why the Sheriff has to mention that they're raising a son in Storybrooke together but she does and the way Cora glares at Emma tells her that her mother is very displeased.

 

"I came for that bean." Cora says and promptly magics it in a swirl of purple smoke to her outstretched palm. "I need to get to wherever she is."

 

"Never!" Emma's growls, so fiercely and so protective that it warms Regina's heart a little. "She's better off without you!" Emma shouts like she knows Regina and Regina startles...dream Emma would know some things about Cora. Did that mean that the Sheriff had memories of Regina too? "Give it back you psycho." 

 

"Not a chance." Cora spits and before Regina can leap out of the shadows, Cora's poofs herself right in front of Emma and reaches into her chest, past flesh and bone and muscle and Regina's own heart _lurches_ painfully as Emma cries out. A second later, there's a giant blast of white magic and Regina watches intently as it hurtles Cora clean across the desert lake.

 

It's a weirdly overwhelming feeling that leaves Regina frozen in disbelief, a shadowed outline perched on the nearest tree but Emma's also frozen too and Snow shakes her out of her stupor as she remembers the magic bean. It appears in Emma's palm in a swirl of white a moment later and Emma and Regina's surprise is cut short as Snow grabs it from her hand and throws it down at the desert lake.

 

"Come on!" Snow yells at her and together they both dive into the swirling vortex of green and into the unknown as Cora looms right behind them.

 

* * *

 

Regina wakes with a start and promptly panics. If Emma and Snow were coming back with Cora...bringing Cora to Storybrooke. Regina shudders. She'd built a life here, a whole entire life away from the influence of her mother.

 

She can't put herself beneath Cora's thumb again.

 

She also has no way of knowing if Cora had gotten to them, and she goes to Gold and tells him about the dream. He watches her curiously with his beady eyes, obviously doubting the validity of her claims as she paces the length of the lake that had become a well in Storybrooke, ignoring Gold's taunts. They eventually somewhat agree on a spell that would kill anything coming in through the well and Regina's severely torn at the decision.

 

Henry gets to the well shortly and manages to dissuade her. And that's all she needs to take the spell off of the well and funnel it through her own body, power crackling through her like a magical tornado that creates little welts against her skin that make her bite down harshly on her tongue until she can feel blood pooling in her mouth.

 

She falls to the side, helpless and panting and suddenly the Sheriff's head is popping through the well and Regina's insanely happy about it. Until she notices Snow hovering uneasily in the background, watching them with hard judgmental  eyes.

 

"Welcome back, Miss Swan." She says, measured and betraying the glee she feels at how acutely her heart swoops when Emma's eyes settle over her like the warmest sunshine. And that feeling in her chest blooms and she has to tempt it down as Emma takes a step towards her as if she wants to wrap her arms around Regina.

 

Regina's the one who steps forward, especially when she sees that scar on Emma's cheek up close. She grasp onto on of Emma's hand and places her own palm against Emma's cheek.

 

She hears Snow inhale sharply and sees her pull Henry into her side but she doesn't waver. She looks into those familiar green eyes that close when her magic glows, a warm muted purple that washes softly against pale skin and curiously has her heart racing by the time she's mended Emma's cheek.

 

Emma's eyes hold her hostage for a few seconds longer as they stare at each other and she reaches up to her face and holds Regina's hand in hers.

 

"Thank you." Emma says, soft and just for her and Regina nods and can't control the pleasant flutter of magic at her fingertips that curiously unfurls and links with something within Emma. It's obvious in the way she inhales sharply, holding onto Regina's hand like Regina's magic was invigorating  and restoring her energy and when she reopens her eyes once more the tiredness from her body is curiously gone.

 

Regina abruptly pulls her hand away and aches at this thing between them. But they're not teenagers anymore and Regina curiously wants to ask her about that part of their life but all too soon Snow's tugging Emma and Henry away and Regina looks into Emma's eyes as Henry tells her how Regina saved them and hopes that she believes that Regina is trying to change.

 

* * *

 

It’s been three weeks since magic came to Storybrooke and chaos unleashed on the small town in Maine.

 

Mary Margaret and David are suddenly being the doting parents they think Emma needs.

 

Except, all Emma wants is for them to stop – desperately. They’re her age and she’s already grown up and this whole town is just fucked up.

 

Her friend Mary Margaret had undergone a personality transplant when she became Snow White and she was no longer cool and funny and she'd heard about all of Emma's one night stands and most about Emma's sad orphan life. All things she'd vowed never to expose to her real parents because they didn't deserve to know anything about her. And she feels entirely too exposed under Snow's too knowing eyes that look at her with such love and sympathy and Emma wants to physically crawl out of her skin.

 

And she can't seem to make them understand that yes, they're heroes and they did the right thing, the hard thing, and sent Emma away. But she grew up all alone and they don't get a free pass to just waltz back into her life twenty eight years later and try to pick up where they left off.

 

She goes back to work and gets bombarded with petty offenses and calls about fetching cats from trees and it leaves her a bit depressed.

 

She ventures out on patrol and pulls over when she sees Regina crossing the road from Granny's. It’s the first time she’s seen Regina in a long while. The woman looks a bit paler but she smiles wanly when she sees Emma and Emma's heart swoops in her chest and she wonders why she's stayed away this long from Regina.

 

But that thought gets cut short when Leroy and the gang of dwarfs practically corner her.

 

And apparently these fairytale characters lose their memories when one dwarf foolishly gets tripped over the townline. They're all looking at Emma expectantly like she should have the answers to all of their problems and it's all just so overwhelming.

 

She ends up leaving the house late at night when they all go to sleep -- David moved into the loft too so its the three of them and Henry and they're way too ecstatic about it but Emma _needs_ her space and she ends up sleeping a few nights in her bug.

 

Regina notices -- of course she does. And Emma promptly gets invited to the mansion where she could sleep on a real bed.

 

Of course her parents don't take kindly to that. She ends up staying there for a full two weeks undetected by them but one of their little kingdom cohorts mentions offhandedly that her bug was seen parked within the gates of the mansion regularly and the moment they'd found out they'd come over to threaten Regina who snarls right back at them and only quiets when Henry says that he would not come over to see her ever again.

 

That was crossing way too many lines at once and Emma pulls him out of David's van and onto the sidewalk and reprimands him about respect, especially concerning his mother. His lower lip wobbles pitifully by the time she's done letting him know that he can't do that and that they're both his mothers and they love him so much and Henry runs back into the van and quietly requests to leave. Regina goes back into the mansion after that and Emma had seen the tears in her eyes too and her heart had lurched so painfully at that void between mother and son.

 

She deals with her self righteous parents next, telling them that she was her own person, an adult, the same age as they were and that she could make her own decisions. Snow and Charming only leave when she promises to check in with them regularly and they discuss the state of the town and how to approach Regina to take back her job as Mayor since Snow was struggling with the position.

 

Emma brings up the topic with Regina who's all too smug in agreeing to taking back her old job.

 

There's a tentative civility between them now. They don't snarl that much or invade the other's personal space and its like with the breaking of the curse they barely know how to be around each other anymore.

 

Captain Hook suddenly appears in town and that's another overwhelming thing altogether. The people barely pay him any attention. He continues his flirtatious jabs at Emma which she studiously ignores every single time he tries to bring up that ill-advised sword fight in which he'd sliced across her cheek.

 

Another hurdle comes when Regina gets accused of kidnapping Archie. It's messy and her parents are stolid in their beliefs that she was 'falling into her old ways' but Emma looks into Regina's eyes and hears her out and _believes_ her when she says she didn't do it.

 

It's a whole long process to proving Regina's innocence but she does it, she manages to get her own dormant magic activated to retrieve Pongo's memories which show Cora shape shifting into Regina and they all become wary of her presence in town.

 

Regina's a little in awe that Emma has magic but the news of her mother's arrival dampens everything and she becomes a lot more withdrawn after that whole messy ordeal. Emma officially gets an entire guest room for herself and aches to cross the hall and enter Regina's room. Especially at nights when those heart wrenching whimpers reach her ears and she realizes that Regina's been having a lot of nightmares that she won't admit saps most of her energy during the day.

 

But Regina's nothing if not resilient and she heads to Town Hall to resume her role as Mayor under Snow's careful observations as Emma heads to the Sheriff's station with Ruby and her apparent new deputy, David.

 

It's a lot harder for Emma, working with David than it is with Ruby and she guilty sends him out on patrols to avoid his too penetrating parental stare while she and Ruby fill out paperwork. Ruby's still fun and they talk and laugh about her naturally flirtatious charm that _thankfully_ did not work on Emma.

 

"I was cursed!" Ruby splutters. "I thought you were so fucking hot the first time I laid eyes on you and I _had_ to hit on you as a daily goal but then I noticed that thing between you and the mayor and started only hitting on you to piss her off but I'm so sorry Emma, my love, my godchild. I'm a poor excuse for a werewolf." Ruby coos obnoxiously and hugs her tightly and Emma curiously doesn't mind as they both break down into laughter.

 

She goes over to see Henry that evening and gets pointedly ignored. He doesn't like that she's spending so much time at the mansion with his mother and he starts coming back over for short periods of time that make that light in Regina's eyes steadily alight.

 

Emma keeps it up and soon Henry starts staying at the mansion with them a few nights a week again. 

 

The form a tentative co-existence and Emma doesn't want to jinx it but it feels right. It feels normal - minus the tension with Snow and Charming that she feels guilty for not working on. They still don't find Cora around town but Regina starts shutting herself off from society again and Emma immediately knows that something's wrong.

 

But she doesn't have time to investigate that because the very next day Mr Gold comes over and all of her hopes plummet.

 

"I do believe you owe me a favor, Miss Swan. And I'm here to collect."

 

* * *

 

This favor's the retrieval of a person -- specifically Gold's son who'd ran away because Emma's sure Gold was an overbearing parent as he practically morphs into a backseat driver on their way to the airport.

 

Emma's lost count over how many times she's rolled her eyes at him and she and Henry suffer through his disdainful attitude and his overripe scent with that old scarf of Baelfire's wrapped around his neck. It garners him a couple of looks and Emma's glad when their plane tickets end up seating her and Henry far away from Gold.

 

What she didn't expect was for Gold's son Baelfire to end up being Neal. Neal who had left her. Neal who was Henry's father.

 

Henry's angry at her for lying at him about his father and she's angry at Neal and Neal's angry at Gold and Emma's just counting down the few hours she'll have to spend in the company of Neal and Gold on the plane ride back.

 

 It all makes for an interesting scenario when Gold gets poisoned with dreamshade by Captain Hook and they all have to work together to get him back to Storybrooke by car. And Emma's never felt more like pulling her hair out as Neal looks over at her and _wants to catch up_.

 

"You don't get to speak." She hisses when he corners her in his tiny apartment just before they leave. "You left and there are consequences to that."

 

And she storms out of the room in a flurry and takes Henry with her.

 

He resists her efforts just like he resists Regina back in Storybrooke and Emma gets a taste of her own medicine as Henry clings to Neal and wants to stay with him in New York City as he places him on a pedestal as his new shiny parent. Emma doubles down on him, doesn't allow him to have his way and he tosses her glares that make her heart hurt especially when he refuses to talk to her.

 

He remains sullen and mute for the entire ride back to Storybrooke and marches his tiny self into the loft and up to Emma's room without a word to anyone.

 

And Emma's at a loss on how to approach this situation concerning Neal with Regina and her memories from the dreamscape stir and she remembers dream Regina not liking him. She grimaces at herself, this Regina would probably fireball him into next week and she sulks in the mansion and blanks on how to tell Regina that Henry's father was debating coming to town.

 

* * *

 When they get back to town, Emma realizes that Cora had been goading Regina and trying to get her back to her side.

 

Snow thought that it was working and she had devised a plan to save Gold's life by trading it for Cora's.

 

It worked and with the death of her mother, Regina becomes enraged and Snow feels guilty enough to give her her heart. 

 

Regina doesn't take it and Emma's grateful, especially when she just points out Snow's blackened heart to her but doesn't harm her. Neal arrives in town during this time and introduces himself directly to Regina.

 

That's another round of miscommunication for them as Regina avoids Emma and Emma grows sullen, hating the fact that Neal didn't tell her when he'd be arriving and just dropped into town.

 

Henry's ecstatic and tries pitifully to hook his parents up -- that's when Neal drops another bombshell on them and told them he invited his fiancé. 

 

* * *

 

With the unwanted attentions from Hook, her apparently growing family tree and the arrival of another stranger in town, Emma's stressed once more.

 

This Greg Mendel, Tamara and Hook form an alliance and end up kidnapping Regina.

 

Emma only realizes that something's wrong when she's walking along the shoreline with Neal trying to convince him that his fiancé was up to some shady shit when she'd essentially dropped to the sand and started crying out in pain that spasms through her veins and her muscles and burns at that point against her sternum. It _tugs_  giant and harsh and she realizes its her magic lurching painfully in her chest.

 

Neal freaks out and takes her to get Gold's help and Snow and Charming show up just as he's administering a potion to her.

 

"What the hell are you doing to her?!" David hisses, brandishing his sword and Snow with her bow.

 

Rumple sighs heavily as Neal tells them all to calm down. "Miss Swan is linked to someone. That potion would allow her to follow it and find the person on the other side of it."

 

Emma downs the potion in one gulp and her body seizes just as there's another lurch against her sternum and energy crackles through her body like tiny little knives piercing through her flesh. She cries out, tears leaking out of her eyes as she stands on shaky legs with David's support at her side.

 

They all follow her like one big giant parade down to the docks and into the Storybrooke Cannery building. There's a scuffle as Hook comes out and engages Neal in a fight and another pause when Mendel tackles David. Snow and David fight him off as Emma drops to her knees again, buzzing so hard with pain her vision blurs. 

 

She's seething, with agony, with pain by the time she makes it into the room and is accosted by Tamara who's got Regina linked up to some weird electrocuting machine set at the highest level.

 

"Leave her the fuck alone!" She shouts, gravelly and pained and Tamara chuckles and just as she's about to pull that lever Emma summons her untamed magic which blasts out of her in a whirl and slams Tamara up against the far wall. 

 

She unbuckles Regina from the gurney and helps her down and Regina shakily engulfs her in a very uncharacteristic hug -- one Emma's never ever received from Mayor Mills as Regina clings to her and whispers her thanks against her ear like the young princess used to.

 

She holds Regina tightly against her own body, heart hammering as they both tremble and they break away when they hear a commotion on the docks and Henry runs right into both of their arms.

 

And all too soon Rumple is informing them that the town was collapsing as the trigger Regina kept hidden had been stolen by Mendel and activated and Storybrooke was actively crumbling beneath their feet.

 

* * *

 

The three of them get to the mines in a swirl of Regina's unsteady magic and she drops to her knees, sagging boneless against the ground but she pushes forward and stands on shaky legs to blanket the trigger with her own magic in an effort to stop the town's destruction.

 

"Why are you sacrificing yourself?!" Emma hisses at her. "This is not the way to prove that you're good. We know you've changed." And her voice promptly breaks at the end and Regina wants to sob too as Henry comes on over to her side and presses himself there. He hasn't done that in such a long time and she revels in his affection as he clings to her and apologizes so fervently for treating her the way he did.

 

"You'll always be my little prince." Regina tells him softly and he cries openly as Emma stares at them.

 

"Regina." Emma says, so soft and achy. Regina wants to cry. But she resists even as those tears burn behind her eyes.

 

Emma's looking at them with those soft green eyes that's starred in those dreams Regina remembers, painting them in warm rich green and a fond sepia shade.

 

And all of a sudden she's there at Regina's side, untamed white magic crackling along her palms and merging with Regina's like a cool breath of fresh air that makes her lungs quake. She inhales sharply as their magic connects, like two pieces of a complicated puzzle that fit together at every angle. Its intoxicating and Regina tries to resist it, even as it crackles along her palms and diffuses across her own magic, strengthening _it_ , strengthening _her_.

 

The trigger stops and they both fall to the floor in a jumble of weak limbs as they stare at each other and break out into soft smiles.

 

They help each other to their feet but by the time they do this there's already more trouble brewing on the horizon as Henry suddenly goes missing. 

  


	4. Chapter 4

"I have a deep fear of being too much. That one day  
I will find my someone, and they will realize that I am  
a hurricane. That they will step back and be intimidated  
by my muchness."

  
— Michelle K., Rumbles From My Head

 

* * *

 

 

The journey to Neverland on Hook's ship is spent in tensed cryptic silence on a lurching vessel in a choppy sea and it does little to help the atmosphere with the vomit inducing motion of the boat.

 

Regina had claimed the only other available room in the vessel and Emma was left to share a room with her so called parents who were insistent on scaring her with their obnoxious levels of PDA. And when she wasn't getting grossed out by them, she was getting hit on by the pirate making it all just a peachy atmosphere altogether.

 

And she wishes she could just go across to Regina's room. Wishes she could just get the woman to talk to her. So she does. She enters that room to find Regina curled in on herself in the middle of the too lumpy bed.

 

She'd invited herself over, boldly so but she wasn't bold enough to sit herself on Regina's bed. Instead, she'd taken the wooden chair next to it and they'd both passed the time talking about Henry in stilted snippets of conversation that make Emma's heart hurt.

 

Gold ups and leaves when they're meters away from the island, claiming he'd work faster on his own and that just sparks a feud over who was going to lead the expedition.

 

Emma's never been as happy to see an abysmal piece of land as this one, she pointedly ignores the fact that somewhere hidden in the shrubs there could be a bunch of monsters.

 

The monsters turn out to be prepubescent boys, dressed in smelly animal carcasses and armed to the teeth with knives, bows and arrows and spears.

 

And they all band together to fight them off.

 

* * *

 

 

The island is too big and too humid and Emma's drenched in perspiration that drips off of her and has her grimacing at herself. Her parents walk on ahead of the group pressed into each other and Emma rolls her eyes affectionately as her eyes drift over to Regina. With every step they take, she's been getting progressively slower and as the sun begins to set on their first day on the island, Emma's worried. She had seen the slight shaking of Regina's frame since the ordeal with the trigger.

 

She'd yet to even recover from her own brush with death after goading Mendel.

 

And then she'd volunteered to stop the trigger knowing she couldn't.

 

And Emma's _angry_ at her, especially now as she's sneakily taking a different path with a lit fireball in her hands to no doubt do what Gold's done to venture off on her own, staring death in the face at half her magical strength. Emma's not going to let that happen.

 

"Stop trying to get yourself killed." Emma hisses in her ear. Regina abruptly stills, turns around with a sharp glare aimed at her.

 

"I'm looking for my son." Regina growls back. "You could help me you know." She says pointedly and Emma's lips press firmly into a line and she shakes her head.

 

"No, I don't know how to use my magic."

 

"I can teach you." Regina offers and Emma glances over to her parents and remembers their reluctance with magic and shakes her head.  "Fine." Regina says. "Stay here with the other idiots."

 

Emma grabs hold of her hand. "Don't go."

 

Regina rolls her eyes. "Can you stop being an over protective Charming spawn for two seconds?"

 

"We're surrounded on an island by murderous orphans, one even almost nicked you with an arrow."

 

"Yes and he received that right back." Regina hisses and her eyes glow a strange alluring purple that makes Emma's mind venture back to Bagheera before they go back to normal. "Now leave me be." And she disappears in a plume of purple smoke that leaves Emma grinding her teeth and following after Snow and Charming instead.

 

* * *

 

 

Regina marches along the island, hand at the ready, a fireball just waiting to be summoned by her magic that tingles just beneath the surface. It gives her time to think and her thoughts flit to Henry and how he'd been swiped right under their noses. It's something that fills her with rage and she digs sharp nails into her palms and quakes silently at the agony of losing her son.

 

Her thoughts flit back to the Sheriff and those dreams she's been having. Dreams of the Savior at various stages in her life. They'd even managed to meet before Storybrooke and that story alone was too unbelievable for Regina to even wrap her mind around.

 

She'd done some research on soulmates in her study but everything led back to one thing -- true love. There was absolutely nothing on dreams of soul creatures existing on a subconscious plane and leading you to your soulmate. It was infuriating and Regina thinks of Odette and her untimely death at the hands of Cora and Rumple's insistence that her soul creature had been a panther. And the only panther she's ever came across was Bagheera.

 

But she never talks about this with Emma -- always shies away from conversations about soulmates and love.

 

Her younger self had automatically liked Emma Swan - something Regina kept obsessively pondering over as the rest of her memories slowly unfurled in her mind. But there was no doubt about it. She'd fallen in love with Emma that summer -- not Daniel. Henry's book actually got it totally twisted, as did her own memories. 

 

But what did that even mean? 

 

The Enchanted Forest had clear cut rules on soulmates -- everyone's soul creatures were with them from birth as a physical manifestation in the world. They developed and grew as they grew. And led them to their soulmates in the _real_ world. Not in that weird dream world where she'd met Emma.

 

But Regina had never had the privilege to experience that real world thing. She'd met Odette at the age of nine and the swan was free spirited. She hated being cooped up in one space for too long. She was much like Emma in that regard, which means that she probably belonged to Emma. If those memories in her head were to be believed, Cora had apparently gotten rid of the first soul creature. And Regina was willing to bet that was Bagheera.

 

It surely explained Bagheera's connection to her, why he was so drawn to her in the dreamscape, why he had her personality, why Emma had seen her as a panther in The Enchanted Forest, why Odette was always running away from her and running _towards_ Emma. Odette _had_ to be Emma's soul creature. But how did she even get from the real world to Regina?

 

It's all too confusing to her and she can barely wrap her mind around it as she walks aimlessly through the forest. 

 

There are shadows dwelling just beyond the rise of the canopy of the trees and she shrinks back a little when there’s a resounding cackle around the clearing. She sees it just as Rumple rounds the corner – a shadow morphs into the form of Belle and he practically falls to her feet and starts crying.

 

It’s an unnerving sight, one that Regina puts an end to with a fireball hurtled directly at the shadow’s chest. It bursts apart from the form it had taken and flies away and Rumple’s dazed crocodile eyes settle on Regina as she helps him up.

 

"What are you doing here, your majesty?" He asks. "Did the Savior willingly let you out of her sight?"

 

"I think..." Regina pauses, the weight of the words taunting her as that tug in her chest blooms warmly when she allows herself to think about her feelings for Emma. "I think I'm her soulmate."

 

"Her soulmate? You?" Rumple laughs - a taunting sound that hits against all of Regina's insecurities. "You think you're the Savior's soulmate?"

 

She doesn't answer, rather, she glares at him with fire in her eyes and hides the pain that mercilessly grabs at her chest.

 

"I wrote her into the curse, I wrote who she ends up with." 

 

"Bae." Regina hisses, refusing to use his other name.

 

Rumple smiles. "Indeed."

 

"He's dead." Regina spits. "He was fighting with the handless captain and fell through that portal at the docks with a sword in his side. You saw him."

 

"I also saw him get captured here by Pan's minions." Rumple says, brandishing his dagger. "I have to rescue my son and my grandson."

 

Regina laughs, sharp and stilted. "Oh this is _precious_ , the dark one acting like he gives a damn about anyone but himself."

 

“I don’t need to explain myself to you.” He says haughtily. “Now get out of my way.”

 

“If it wasn’t for me you’d still be chasing that shadow crying for your precious Belle.” She hisses.

 

It’s apparently the wrong thing to say.

 

Rumple growls, surges forward in blinding supernatural speed and presses the dagger to Regina's neck. Regina inhales sharply as his eyes glow gold.

 

"Don't test me, Regina." He says icily. "The Savior and the Evil Queen aren't fated soulmates. That's absurd. Word on the cobbled streets is that a fairy already gave you your shot at yours in a tavern back in the day." He says tauntingly, fingering a lock of raven hair as his eyes sweep over her entire frame.

 

Leave it to him to hit all of her deep seated issues in one go. She shies away from his touch and his prying hands and tries to cool the simmer of hatred that lurches uncomfortably against her rib cage. That was in her past, that matter with Tinkerbell was ancient history.

 

And she defiantly wants to prove him wrong - even now she could sense Emma's magic, that tug in her chest. She closes her eyes and wills herself to tug on it and waits. But nothing comes. Nothing tugs back at that connection she'd fondly discovered.

 

He grins a bit manically at her when she reopens her eyes. "I sensed that magical connection between you happen when the Savior activated your magic to save you from the wraith." He says slightly condescending and wholly insufferable. "The dark one sees all and knows all, deary."

 

"Yes." Regina says tersely. "Everything but why his soulmate constantly rejects him." 

 

Rumple's face hardens at that and he stands. "Don't think yourself into a mess over soulmates, your majesty. You and the Savior clearly don't have any soul creatures to lead you to them." He says primly and then disappears in a swirling vortex of black leaving Regina seething with fury as she continues marching away from the Charming camp. 

 

A tug in her chest comes just a few steps later but she presses her lips in a firm line and barrels on.

 

She was going to find her _son_ and get them off of this stupid island.

 

* * *

 

Regina gets as far as a tiny alcove a few miles away on the island and before she can check it out, something hits her directly in the face like an explosion of glitter and suddenly she's falling to the forest floor. 

 

* * *

 

She comes to in a dark murky cave hating the mud and dirt that clings to her clothes as she blinks heavily around.

 

And comes face to face with an angry fairy who presses a knife to her throat.

 

And Regina’s getting really tired of this.

 

“Tinkerbell.” She greets the blonde fairy coolly as those shiny green eyes trip over her disdainfully. “To what do I owe the displeasure?”

 

Tinkerbell glowers in response. “I’ve been waiting to get another shot at you, your majesty.” The fairy says, tiny and spiteful as she fists Regina’s collar and presses the knife even harder against Regina’s juggler, just on the point of breaking her skin.

 

 “You better fly away moth.” Regina growls as she twitches her fingers. But her magic sputters in a tiny pathetic swirl against her fingertips and curiously stops. She tries it again and again, eyes widening as panic slides down her spine and Tinkerbell lets go of her collar as her lilting laughter fills the room.

 

“What did you do to me?!” Regina hisses, fists clenched in anger as humiliation burns a pathway across her cheeks.

 

“Poppy dust.” The fairy smirks. “It’ll wear off soon, but by that time I’ll already be done with you.”

 

It’s a blatant threat, yes. But as Tinkerbell hovers over her, tiny and vindictive, Regina can’t even bring herself to take her seriously. The fairy tugs her up roughly by her collar and she stands a bit wobbly, holding onto the wall of the cave as the after effects of the poppy dust makes her a bit disoriented.

 

And Regina’s eyes take in the rest of the cave, tripping over bedding and utensils and maps and a generally lived in homey environment as they settle back over the fairy and her jungle attire.

 

“You don’t have any magic either.” She says smugly, grinning down at the fairy who points her tiny knife back in her face. Regina rolls her eyes and shoves it away.

 

“Yes I’m trapped here essentially wingless, thank you very much.” Tinkerbell huffs and Regina grinds her teeth. “It’s all because of you!”

 

“I told you I didn’t have a soulmate and that I didn’t want one! And what did you do? Break some ancient fairy rule to stick your nose in my business?!”

 

“You were unhappy!” Tinkerbell fires back and Regina's taken back at the concern she remembers experiencing from the fairy. But now its masked with utter contempt and Regina responds to it in kind. "Excuse me for my concern.”

 

“You had no right.” Regina growls. “You damned your own self.”

 

“The pixie dust doesn’t lie. It leads you to a potential soulmate connection. That’s as good as it gets in The Enchanted Forest. You could have given the man with the lion tattoo a chance.”

 

“I didn’t want your help! _Or_ that man!”

 

“He could have showed you how to love again!” Tinkerbell implores.

 

“What the hell do you even know about love?” Regina hisses disdainfully as the low light within the cave dims considerably and Tinkerbell freezes where she stands, eyes burning with betrayal. It was a low blow yes - the fairy had once confided in her that she often felt different from her peers, that she longed to experience the full extent of human love.

 

Tinkerbell huffs and abruptly stomps her booted feet and marches out of the cave.

 

It gives Regina a moment's reprieve from her judging eyes and she forces herself not to think of the idealistic young fairy of her past.

 

“You didn’t even give him a chance, did you?” She comes back in arguing, carrying a couple of buckets that she places strategically all over the floor and Regina’s really had enough of this. “I think he could have made you _happy_.”

 

Regina shakes her head, far beyond wanting to deal with the situation but as Tinkerbell relights a candle in the cave, there’s the pitter patter of rain hitting the forest ground outside and pretty soon it’s storming.

 

Regina sighs heavily, sinks back down to the floor on shaky legs and eyes the fairy wryly.

 

Tinkerbell glowers right back in response as she shifts on over to settle in a huff on her own bedding.

 

They both remain in a tensed cryptic silence for a long time. Regina doesn’t even know how many hours pass but the only noise between them is the odd splash of water falling from the ceiling of the cave into the buckets. The full moon in the sky illuminates a shiny clear path indicating the murky waters that make tiny rivulets that curiously curve around the Neverland trees before Regina’s placated enough to talk to the fairy without shouting at her.

 

“I’m sorry you lost your wings.” She says softly.

 

Tinkerbell’s head jerks up from her pillow and she looks on over at Regina.

 

“You’ve changed.” She says in response and Regina sighs heavily, clutches that pendant around her neck that has a picture of her son and nods in response. “May I ask what brought on this change?”

 

“My son.” Regina whispers into the night air and she knows that Tinkerbell hears how painfully her voice cracks on the single syllable.

 

“You love him." Tinkerbell states. Regina smiles in response. "What’s his name?” She asks softly.

 

“Henry.” Regina says and Tinkerbell sits up stiffly.

 

“Pan has him, doesn’t he?”

 

Regina nods mutely.

 

“Are you here alone to get him back?”

 

“No.” She says, remembering the entire Charming team was also somewhere bumbling along the island. “I came here with Snow and Henry’s other mother.” She explains.

 

“Your enemy?” Tinkerbell blinks. 

 

“Yes, well. His other mother is Snow’s daughter.” And she pauses here to explain the curse as Tinkerbell nods along to parts that she’d heard about.

 

“So he has two of you?”

 

Regina nods and doesn’t exactly know why she cares to explains the current status of her co-parenting routine in Storybrooke with the Sheriff but by the time she’s done she's smiling and Tinkerbell’s watching her with intrigue.

 

Another short silence falls between them before Regina blurts out a question that’s been plaguing her all evening. 

 

"Can soulmates meet in dreams?"

 

"I've heard tale of that happening." Tinkerbell nods. “In other realms.”

 

"Is it common?"

 

"No."

 

"Can they be matched from different realms?"

 

And Tinkerbell laughs. It’s a lilting sound, a soothing tinkering that oddly reminds her of little bells. “Oh Regina.” She sighs. "I really have missed your wide eyed curiosity." And Regina folds her arms.

 

“Okay, you could have just said no.”

 

“No.” Tinkerbell repeats but then adds. “Not usually.”

 

Regina’s ears perk up at that. “So it is possible.”

 

“That would require one to know the difference between soulmates and true love and soulmates who share true love.”

 

“Okay honestly that just sounds like much of the same thing.”

 

“It’s all terribly complicated, I’m afraid.” Tinkerbell sighs tiredly, turning on her side but Regina’s out for answers.

 

“Well uncomplicated it.” She demands. “Explain it to me.”

 

Tinkerbell’s brows furrow. “I can’t.” She shrugs. “We’re not capable of that kind of emotion. You know that.” The fairy berates. “Plus that combination is so rare it might as well not exist.”

 

* * *

 

 

Regina finds her way back to the group in the morning with Tinkerbell in tow and is surprised to note the presence of Henry's father. Emma's avoiding everyone's eyes and Tinkerbell apparently knows Neal so she engages him in a lengthy conversation.

 

Regina checks in on the plan to save Henry as the map indicates that they were near Pan's main camp.

 

She also gets to hear the story of how they all rescued Baelfire from Pan and Hook saved David from falling off of a rope bridge and hurtling to his princely death.

 

It makes Regina that much more irritated when she notices just how much Baelfire and the pirate follow the pacing Sheriff with helpless doe eyes as she clutches a map of the island Regina knows she wasn't reading. And just as Regina has the thought, Emma flings the map down and goes off into the forest with Hook immediately following behind.

 

It's infuriating, especially when Snow and Charming keep engaging Baelfire in conversation as some pitiful attempt to 'check out their daughter's taste in men.' 

 

He's Emma's Neal, Henry's dead beat father who Emma had gotten pregnant for in her teens. The image of a pregnant Emma comes to her then, unbidden. She remembers the bags around her eyes, the sallow look to her skin, but also the radiant glow that pregnancy gave her. It had left Regina aching, wallowing in misery and despair so deep she felt like she couldn't breathe when she realized what he'd done to Emma. And she'd immediately wanted to help raise the child.

 

She couldn't explain why she'd offered. Emma had smiled at her, beautiful and so full of life in that moment and Regina had leaned forward and kissed her.

 

Which is exactly why it enrages her further when she leaves the camp and ventures off into the woods and catches the pirate and Emma in a heavy lip lock.

 

She isn't proud of it, but she hurls two separate fireballs at them.

 

It catches the Sheriff's attention just as it hurtles close enough to her shoulder to singe a piece of her blonde hair.

 

They break away in a startled mess when Emma yelps and the pirate cries out in agony at the decidedly red spot marring his shoulder.  Regina's eyes bore into Emma's, so deadly and _so absolutely jealous_ that she can't even stand herself in that moment as she turns on her heel and stomps off into the bushes.

 

Emma immediately stomps after her.

 

"Hey!" She calls, sharp and annoyed and Regina ignores her, using her magic to clear the pathway ahead of her. The Sheriff sprints and promptly catches her wrist and drags her behind a bunch of nearby trees. "What's your problem?" Emma hisses.

 

"You!" Regina spits, yanking her arm away.

 

"He'd saved my Da-David's life and I -"

 

"Do you custom reward people using parts of your body?" Regina hisses. "Shouldn't you allow Baelfire a spot to suck on your neck for getting rescued by you!?"

 

"You're one to talk." Emma bristles. "You have to destroy your own happiness before some outside force can take it from you."

 

"You know nothing about me." Regina growls.

 

"I know much more than you think, _princess_." Emma fires back, a fierce look to her eyes that Regina catches as the familiar nickname startles her.

 

She turns on her heel.

 

"We're done here." Regina spits.

 

"I'm not exactly sure what you're ending." Emma says in a warm flurry of air that slides down Regina's neck as pale fingers dig in at her sides. She stiffens and pries Emma's hands off.

 

"I'm not interested in playing a miserable game of mind reader with you, Miss Swan."

 

"But you're well versed in playing dumb."

 

"Excuse me?"

 

"What are you so afraid of?" Emma asks.

 

Regina laughs. It's sharp and cold and Emma defiantly manages to stand her ground when those fiery eyes burn through her. It has Regina vibrating with heat, with energy, something tugging low in her stomach that feels an awful lot like a reservoir of magic, whispering along her shoulders, sliding along the nape of her neck and pooling together at that spot.

 

It has her breathless, especially since the longer she stares at Emma, the sharper and more intense the feeling becomes.

 

"You're delusional, Miss Swan." Regina says, composed.

 

Emma grits her teeth, takes a step forward that has Regina taking an automatic step back. And Regina growls, frustration practically wafting off of her in such intense waves as Emma defiantly looms over her, pressing her back against a tree.

  
And Regina wonders how they always _always_ seem to end up like this - messily falling into each other but pretending that they don't know how they get there.

 

"I'm sorry." Emma whispers.

 

 Regina bristles beneath the weight of that steady green gaze, steeling herself as she pushes against Emma's chest, hating the fact that she'd bared herself and made herself so vulnerable enough for Emma Swan of all people to see straight through her bravado.

 

Emma just raises an eyebrow, arms trapping at Regina's sides. And just as Emma dips forward to kiss her, Regina places a hand over her lips, eyes burning into emerald as she musters the courage to stop the kiss.

 

“Don’t you _dare_ try kissing me with pirate on your breath.” She snips haughtily.

 

Emma’s magic is latent and unpredictable at times and in this moment it rises from her body, steadily brushing along Regina's calves and slivering up her spine. Regina finds herself inhaling sharply, aching and vulnerable, susceptible to the Sheriff’s every whim as Emma’s head dips forward, pressing her face warmly against her neck as her arms hold her loosely.

 

Regina’s breath leaves her in a warm flurry as a hand fists in Emma’s hair and the Sheriff’s lips plant warm fervent kisses against her skin.

 

The kisses against her neck are _laced_ with magic, white magic, and Regina can feel it humming along the bow of Emma's supple lips in her bid to leave sweet soft tingly kisses that make Regina groan. Especially since the magic Regina detects isn't a conscious thing - Emma's doing it unintentionally because Regina can detect the little unsteady tremors to it. Just the feel of it manages to catch Regina off-guard when it brushes against her skin and rushes through her veins.

 

It feels quite intimate.

 

The intimacy in this magical link between them is breathtaking and Regina wants to revel in it, wants to revel in Emma as the Sheriff pulls back, eyes a dark alluring green as she brushes their noses together. Something so reminiscent of the dream world that it has Regina's heart in fluttery shambles.

 

 “Teach me magic?” Emma requests  _oh so softly_ in a warm flurry against her lips. And all Regina can do is nod in compliance.

 

 

* * *

 

 

They go back to the camp separately - Emma, as soon as Regina had agreed to her proposition and Regina some lengthy time after everyone's already in their sleeping bags.

 

And since the day before Emma's been seeing Odette everywhere. Just little glimpses. It's unnerving how her beady emerald eyes familiar yet unfamiliar, seem to watch her wherever she ventures on the island.

 

And apparently Regina can see her too?

 

She only finds this out when Regina startles in her sleep, waking up to the luminescent body of the swan staring down at her. She freezes, calls her by name, and Odette disappears.

 

Regina's visibly shaken after the encounter, not even noticing she was being observed by Emma as she jerkily shoots to her feet and takes a random path into the forest -- in the dead of night.

 

Emma debates whether or not to follow her, knowing that Regina perhaps not want anyone to encroach on her space. But she was concerned about Pan's shadows who curiously took any form that would rattle their target.

 

She stays back at camp, tensed, hoping beyond all hope that that was the real Odette and not a shadow as she watches over their little troops while she waits until Regina comes back.

 

She ends up falling into a bit of a fitful sleep that lands her back within the foggy path of the Neverland forest. She only calms a second later when she catches sight of Bagheera's long black tail swishing behind some trees and she follows him as he slinks down a pathless void and pauses when she sees Regina. 

 

Regina smiles a little sadly at her as she walks on over but doesn't show any signs of welcoming her presence.

 

"How are you here? Are you even real?" Regina asks softly.

 

_Emma ducks her head imploringly, emerald eyes seeking out Regina as the woman sniffles audibly, and forces a small smile over her lips as Emma nuzzles her head affectionately against her neck. When she pulls back Regina’s smile was no longer forced. It was still sad, but the melancholy tinging the edges made it even more beautiful and Emma leaned in again, this time nuzzling the woman’s cheek._

 

_Fingers thread through her hair then, softly, stroking and twirling and Emma finds herself almost mewling at the sensations._

 

_“I’m happy you’re here, Odette. I've missed you.”_

 

_Emma could feel the tension within her own body practically diffusing as she cuddles further into her embrace, wanting to reassure Regina with her words but failing miserably when those soft melancholic eyes hold her spellbound._

 

_Regina tilts her head affectionately, pecks her lightly on the nose and Emma smiles, closes her eyes and just revels in the sweet scent of vanilla that almost seems to cling to Regina’s skin._

 

Emma jerks awake, that heavy feeling in her chest tearing her from the refuge of sleep and simultaneously Regina’s arms. It was the first time since...she shook her head. This one had to have been real. It just had to. But how was she seeing Regina and interacting with her as the swan? Why was Regina calling her Odette?

 

She sits there contemplating the dream as her eyes trail over the rest of their sleeping camp and then gravitated towards Regina who was once again within the confines of her sleeping bag.

 

She had no answers but was dead set on getting some soon. This connection between them was too intense, too precious to inevitably ruin. She had to investigate it and she vowed to do so as soon as they got their son back.

 

Emma gets up and checks the perimeter around the camp before she gives in and finally takes inventory of their stocks like Snow's asked her to. She picks up the map Pan had given to her and sets her sights on his location.

 

"We're coming for you Henry." She whispers and she swears she hears Bagheera's little agreeing growl in her head.

 

* * *

 

They have a few minor setbacks on the way to Pan's camp, namely, the pirate getting possessed by a shadow and getting the stuffing pummeled out of him by Emma. It's all hilarious to Regina, who watches the entire ordeal with amusement and doesn't bother to direct Emma's magic in a less harmful way.

 

Mary Margaret and David falling helplessly from another bridge that Regina folds her arms and doesn't save them from is another test that Emma's magical instincts reacts to and instead of just tethering the rope of the bridge back together, she creates another bridge, modern, steel, out of thin air lower down the river that saves them from the water.

 

Regina's impressed and so are her parents and they keep practicing as they advance towards Pan's hideout with Emma's parents, Tinkerbell, Baelfire and Hook trailing behind.

 

But Regina and Emma seem to only have eyes for each other, fixated on saving their son and improving Emma's magic and they continuously start running off deeper into the woods just so they can be alone during their magic sessions which bordered a bit on the intense side.

 

Emma hurts herself pretty badly on a number of occasions and gets discouraged whenever her magic wavers or doesn't immediately come whenever she needs it.

 

She sits on a log in the middle of the forest where she'd failed to magic an entire tree away and instead had apparently unintentionally affected the wind in the area instead. It was like the sudden lashing of an intense storm and Emma was forced to shield her face from the cuts the sharp wind sliced into her cheek.

 

Regina stands before her, having come to her aid and cups her face between gentle palms, eyes soft but determined as she stares at Emma's forlorn face.

 

"We are going to teach you magic effectively. And find our son." She says sternly, leaving no room for doubts. She had the imperious voice of a queen, ardent and domineering and Emma was already falling into her eyes, fixated on the gentle palms that swept across the shallow cuts across her cheek and remains there even as the pulsing glow of the healing magic at the tips of her fingers fades. And Regina had started calling Henry _their_ son and Emma's heart was in such sporadic whirls that she didn't know what to do with herself.

 

Emma swallows thickly, eyes bouncing from Regina's eyes to Regina's lips and Regina laughs. Actually _laughs_. It's a soft husky sound, sexy, but mocking in its delivery. Emma frowns, pulls back just a bit, ignoring the jolt the sound sent down her spine or the way she could actually _feel_ Bagheera and Odette's presence in the air around them anytime they practice magic like this.

 

"What's so funny?" Emma asks, genuinely curious as Regina's eyes meet hers.

 

"You." Regina says, that tiny infuriating smirk daring to curve at the corner of her lips. "Us."

 

"I'm confused? I don't think that's funny at all." Emma remarks, vaguely aware of Regina's palm curling around the base of her neck.

 

"Good. Then you won’t find this as amusing as it probably is."

 

Emma doesn't even have time to respond to the baiting remark as she's abruptly jerked forward into a kiss. And it’s soft, _hungry_ and she sinks into it, into the way Regina's mouth fits perfectly against hers.

 

Regina was intoxicating, infuriating and Emma didn’t know what that said about her as she was prepared to follow her to the ends of the earth.

 

She pulls the Mayor closer, arms curving around her waist as her magic blankets them in soft glowing white. She can't seem to control herself whenever they end up like this, but Regina's told her that it's harmless to her and Emma believes her, loves the little way Regina's sighs tumble down her spine when Emma's magic touches her.

 

It's entirely alluring and as Regina presses forward into the kiss, Emma's hands blanketed in white slip down her waist and all the way down the backs of Regina's thighs and Regina's lips suddenly freeze against Emma's.

 

She gasps loudly into Emma's mouth as their lips part and those dark eyes lock with Emma's. They glow a little, that muted pulse of purple magic and a few seconds later Regina's head swung up, body tensing, as her eyes screwed shut and she was sent careening into bliss so intense her entire body shuddered against Emma's.

 

Emma's mouth fell open at the sight as Regina's entire body just seemed to unfurl and she had to stand up to catch her as she sagged bonelessly into Emma's arms.

 

Emma lifts an eyebrow. "Did you just-?"

 

"No." Regina immediately rebuts but that telling husky tenor to her voice and that little flush dusting across the rise of her cheeks has Emma in peals of laughter.

 

"Oh my god, you did!" She grins and Regina sticks her nose in the air and doesn't dignify Emma with a response as she turns on her heel and marches off ahead to take them back to camp.

 

* * *

 

It's a while after when they finally manage to save Henry. Emma's in control of enough of her magic by then and they cause a moon eclipse over the island in order to cross Pan's no shadow barrier. 

 

They defeat a host of Pan's shadows, rescue some Lost Boys and Gold manages to capture Pan within the Pandora's box they'd had help getting from Storybrooke via mermaid.

 

They all board the Jolly Roger and it's smooth sailing back to Storybrooke and civilization.

 

* * *

 

They come back from Neverland and it’s as if nothing’s changed.

 

And the burden of being the Savior's like a heavy weight upon Emma's shoulders, dragging her down into the quiet depths of despair on nights when she allows herself to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the title. When morning comes she puts her armor back on, closes the lid on those emotions that whisper across her heart and steels herself to continue being what Storybrooke needs.

 

A hero. A Savior - someone who leads fearlessly and without remorse.

 

Emma and Regina fall back into that easy co-parenting thing they had going with a notable exception - Snow and David had practically coerced her into living with them again for a few days. And Emma was thrust into this new dynamic with her parents, Regina and her son and she struggles with balancing it. 

 

Henry also starts clinging to Regina more and demanding to be taken back to his real bedroom.

 

It creates a rift between Emma and Regina when Emma tells her that he's acting a bit off.

 

Regina bristles at the insinuation and Emma hates that their easy dynamic gets pushed aside so easily whenever they don't agree on something. Neal moves back to town to live with Gold and basically starts trying to hang out with Henry too.

 

It's all very messy and Henry seems to be creating conflict between all of the adults, something Emma alone curiously notices. 

 

And soon Pan's shadow unleashes upon Storybrooke, wrecking havoc among the citizens. Emma traces it all back to Henry and Regina rages at her and Neal and doesn't want to believe it.

 

Emma tries to make her see reason as Neal stands at her side in Regina's mansion and the woman spits bitter insults that tear them down to shreds. It's infuriating and also heartbreaking and Emma wants to yell.

 

"Come on, Emma." Neal says, holding her elbow to stop her from angrily marching on over to Regina to demand that she listen. Regina turns her back to them as she stands behind the kitchen island, a glass of wine cradled in her trembling hands. "Let's get out of here."

 

And Emma just nods sullenly and turns on her heel.

 

"You're reckless with your heart, Miss Swan." Regina says, perfectly measured and slightly stilted. And Emma freezes, hearing those exact words from younger Regina's lips. She'd just uttered words of dream worlds where soul creatures had led Emma to the most beautiful sight her teenage self had often fallen asleep musing over.

 

Emma pauses, turns to give Regina a look and she's angry now. Does Regina know??? Has she known this entire time??? "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"  She hisses and Neal's still holding onto her arm and Emma wants to rip it away. But he's the voice of reason, urging Emma to leave Regina and Henry be as Henry peeks at them from the top stairs of the balcony, looking so demonically smug that Emma wants to break down into tears because how can Regina not notice that about their kid???

 

And they're both stuck here, in this frustrating limbo, toeing the line of acknowledgement that neither dares cross.

 

Odette isn't here and neither is Bagheera and Emma has no proof that she even remembers those dreams accurately.

 

"What the hell do you mean, Regina?" She asks again, softly this time.

 

"Nothing." Regina says, and Emma remains there, silent and aching, emotions flickering in rapid fire across her face as Neal looks curiously between them.

 

She turns on her heel, silent and infuriated. She leaves as Regina downs the rest of her scotch and Emma slams the door of the mansion for good measure.

 

* * *

 

 

They end up finding out that the real Henry was trapped in Pandora's box by Gold when they cross the townline and set him free. And it's a race to get Henry back into his own body as Pan's curse looms over the horizon.

 

They end up switching them back and in a twist of fate, Pan and Gold end up taking each other's lives, right in the middle of town square.

 

 

Neal and Belle are distraught over the turn of events and they clutch onto each other and weep silently for Gold.

 

Regina gets struck down in the middle of the road by the curse she has to cast in order to alter Pan's curse and it's never torn Emma apart more than to see that quiet despair practically emanating from those dark eyes that hold hers with so much emotion.

 

 

* * *

 

Regina hasn’t exactly told them what she’s seen when the spell knocked her out for a few seconds -- just that she has to give up _the thing she loves the most_ and her eyes bounce helplessly between Henry and Emma and Emma’s not about to leave things that way.

 

"Emma." Snow interrupts before she can tug Regina away and suddenly she finds herself encased in a parental hug, Snow and David on either side.

 

She clings to them both, chest constricting even further when it dawns upon her that she was going to lose them all over again. And it's never hit her this hard, that she'd taken their presence in her life for granted, that she'd once again be parentless and ignorant of her true roots.

 

Her eyes flit to Neal and Henry and even Hook, hovering uneasily on the outskirts of their tearful goodbye hugs and hope speeches.

 

She tries desperately to ignore the cursed maelstrom of green swirling energy in the distance enveloping Storybrooke and racing towards them in the middle of Snow’s hope speech about _happy endings not being what they thought they would be_. And for some reason her eyes settle on Regina.

 

Her resolve hardens and she’s stubborn in her persistence to _do_ something. She’s _The Savior_ dammit. She’s supposed to be able to save them all -- to bring back all the happy endings. Not be able to escape the curse that’ll take everyone else back to the Enchanted Forest and leave her and Henry blissfully oblivious with false memories.

 

Regina’s gloved hands shake as she pockets the spell and won't make eye contact with her when they all decide that Henry and Emma would be taking the bug and leaving Storybrooke.

 

A few minutes later they’re all standing at the townline and Emma’s heart is beating fiercely against her chest and Regina’s been obsessively fingering that spell and ignoring her and _how dare she act aloof during what could possibly be their final moments together_.

“Regina.” She says, faltering when that same energy she feels hovering between them since the thing in the mines and what happened in Neverland washes over her like an intense splintering wave of emotions.

 

It suddenly has her vibrating with energy, with magic and Regina’s eyes glow a little strangely, like that alluring purple she only used to see on Bagheera and she can swear that she hears his displeased little whine in her head.

 

It’s a confusing feeling to say the least, but Regina looks startled as if she felt something too and Emma does sob then, eyes steely but soft and she _can't believe this woman_.

 

"You..." She shakes her head. "You knew." She points an accusing finger against Regina's chest. "You _knew_ , you _asshole_."

 

Regina just nods, not even bothering to defend herself. She nods and curls a hand around Emma's wrist, cradles it against her chest and watches Emma with sad sad eyes that make the Savior's chest quake and her knees all wobbly.

 

"Say something." Emma says, jaw tight, yet her words are soft and pleading. Regina smiles, small and pained and _it just isn't fair_.

 

"I'm sorry."

 

"Regina." Emma says, a whole world of _frustration_ and _feelings_ in that singular word that makes Regina's breath catch. "I can't believe that you just..."

 

Henry's finally done with his goodbyes to their family and he lodges himself tightly between the both of them. Emma bites her tongue and can barely deal with all of this right now let alone this soulmate situation. His eyes are already brimming with tears as he clings to his mothers and Regina kisses the top of his head and Emma can't believe that this is how everything's going to end.

 

She’s suddenly struck with the notion that it'll just be her and Henry now. And she's going to be a full time Mom, and how is she going to do that without Regina there and --

 

"I can't do this." She whispers hoarsely, eyes bouncing from Henry's face burrowed against Regina's chest to Regina's teary eyes and her spiraling thoughts make her throat constrict.

 

"Yes you can." Regina says immediately. "You won't have your current memories but you'll have ones of raising Henry. You'll have never been apart.”

 

Emma's lips tremble. "But it won't be real.”

 

"Your past won't but your future will.”

 

Emma clenches her fist against Regina's coat, uncaring of the rough way her fingers dig into the fabric and pull their bodies closer together.

 

“I won't have any of you there with me." She whispers.

 

Regina reaches out, cups Emma's face and looks so forlorn that Emma can't breathe.

 

“We'll meet again." Regina says, decisive, reassuring. Emma almost believes her, closes the rest of that tiny space between her and their son and presses her forehead against Regina's.

 

“You don't know that for sure.”

 

Regina squeezes her eyes shut, and just for a moment Emma can breathe again as Regina's gloved hand moves from her jaw to the nape of her neck. Regina holds her there for what Emma surmises is less than a second before moving back up to swipe at the damming tears she now notices sliding down her cheek.

 

They’re both oblivious to Henry's shocked expression that's clearly mirrored on everyone else's face.

 

“Maybe I'll see you in my dreams.” Regina says, words spoken just a hairsbreadth away from Emma’s lips as she leans forward and their noses brush. The words are soft and broken and Emma forces herself not to tremble at the ghostly feel as Regina’s warm breath washes over her in the acknowledgment of this thing between them that those words provide. Or the way that Regina's palm, soft and warm against her face settles that constricting feeling at her throat but makes her heart thud painfully in her chest. She nods and clenches her jaw at the wave of agony that practically shatters across her heart. She doesn’t know what else to say as the words all jumble in her throat.

 

Regina drops her palm and Emma reluctantly let’s go of her coat.

 

The distance makes Emma feel the cold and loss as acutely as the Maine air in her lungs but the determined fire alighting dark irises makes her stand just a little bit taller.

 

It's all surreal, everything happening in fast paced motion around them as the curse draws nearer to their little family unit, and Emma can't help but wish for time to freeze during this moment.

 

A few seconds later they're being ushered into Emma’s yellow volkswagon. And she and Henry watch on through the glass of the rearview mirror as they cross the townline and Pan's Regina altered curse consumes Storybrooke.

 

* * *

 

 

They’re driving away from one of their end of the summer camping trips, a weird thing they'd started a few years ago when Emma's bug had broken down this far on the outskirts of Maine. Henry's just made a joke about him waking up to pecks from a squirrel thinking it was his mom and it has them both in stitches.

 

Emma’s as happy as can be, sighing heavily as they continue on their drive back to civilization. Yet her eyes keep drifting back towards the path they'd just driven.

 

She shakes her head, looks at herself in the rearview mirror. There's a deep furrow between her brows that makes the wide smile on her face feel faked and there's a weird sort of tension lingering in her hands that grip the steering wheel with too much force as she detects the fleeting sense of trepidation.

 

It derails her thought. She feels like she’s missing something here, something substantial and she inhales the sharp cool Maine air and can barely shake that feeling.

 

It’s something that lingers on the outskirts of her mind and tickles her thoughts and she tries to hide her growing sense of unease from Henry when he notes the furrow between her brows and asks if she’s okay.

 

She distracts him with the promise of pizza and ice cream and they make good time back to their apartment in Boston.

 

* * *

 

 

The altered curse washes over Fairytale Land in grandiose whorls of Regina’s purple magic that takes them all to outskirts of the Enchanted Forest -- dressed in the same exact thing they’d last worn in that realm.

 

The tight corset digging into her ribs makes Regina straighten her spine immediately to avoid the tight jab of the rigid bones she knew so intimately and she’s never been more heartsick about donning her old getup.

 

And suddenly they’re not alone anymore -- they’re greeted by Princess Aurora and Prince Philip who inform them of the ravaged state of the Kingdom.

 

It’s only then that Regina notices the pair of solid tan colored bunnies that had practically leaped from Aurora and Philip's shoulders and down towards the grass. She turns to the residents of Storybrooke and practically bristles when like an unwarranted nightmare, those soul creatures suddenly start appearing at everyone else’s side.

 

Snow’s got back that obnoxious tiny bluebird that had never once left her and David’s got his rather large German Shepherd practically preening as he affectionately scratches behind its ear. Ruby and Granny’s wolves the color of charcoal and rust are on high alert circling the clearing while Baelfire’s massive St Bernard practically covers him with slobber.

 

Each of the dwarves had a different type of bird Regina didn’t really care enough to take note of and Belle’s tiny ginger cat was perched on her shoulder quivering as she brushed a hand through his fur.

 

Even the obnoxious Captain Hook had a smart looking raven perched on his broad shoulders.

 

And Regina has never missed Odette more than she did in this moment and can’t help but feel that loss like a dagger to the heart and a phantom limb that just reminds her of the past.

 

They all agree to head back to Regina’s castle and Hook ventures off on his own in an effort to find his ship.

 

* * *

 

Every step Regina seems to take towards her castle has her anxious. Her mind is a whir of emotions that she desperately tries to curb with those breathing techniques the cricket always used to show her. Except, it’s barely working. Her heart is hammering against her ribcage, practically beating itself numb against her chest and she struggles to breathe, struggles to properly hold in her magic and not allow it to manifest in crazy spurts of violet.

 

It’s made all the more worse when she tries to ignore the eyes of all the curious nosy ingrates who seem to be sending her pitying glances as they take in the absence of a soul creature at her side. And Regina’s never been more annoyed at the customs in the forest. She remembers this feeling -- this feeling of nakedness, the feeling that never left her since Odette was killed. And the reprieve that living in Storybrooke and a land without magic with a shy belief in soulmates had given to her.

 

She had to give up _the things she loves the most_ in order to come back to this miserable ravaged land while her heart's still with Henry and Emma who she'd made sure were well off in Emma's old apartment in Boston, living their lives oblivious to the people whose hearts ached for them.

 

Regina knows they’d made a scene at the townline -- an intimate scene that she hadn’t cared at the time for prying eyes to have witnessed. But now, standing here on her way to the old castle with Snow practically hovering at her side, Regina can’t help but regret it.

 

She sighs heavily. “Just ask, Snow.”

 

Fortunately for her, something comes hurtling through the trees at a breakneck pace. They all pull up short on the defense and Regina conjures a fireball in her palm, ready to strike.

 

“What the hell is that?!” Grumpy shouts and they all look up as something with dark fur swoops over the trees.

 

"I don't know, didn't get a good look at it!" Charming hollers back. "Take cover everyone!"

 

* * *

 

Flying monkeys from The Land of OZ had infiltrated The Enchanted Forest and as Regina, Snow, Charming and the others had bravely fought against it, help had arrived in the form of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men.

 

They'd helped the small group escape the clutches of the mad winged beasts and then offered to escort them on the way to the castle.

 

"There's a magical barrier right there!" Hood points as they draw nearer to the bridge of Regina and Snow's old castle. "We've found a tunnel that leads beneath it so follow us this way."

 

And Regina's immediately incensed at the audacity of this anonymous magic user who'd locked her out of her castle. She gets rid of the weak magical barrier with a flick of her wrist and storms towards the entrance, that vein on her forehead a prominent fixture as she growls. "Get the hell out of my castle!"

 

Snow's immediately at her side, armed with her bow and arrow and Regina draws a fireball just as the smaller entrance to the grand hall opens and a familiar face pops out.

 

"Regina?" A familiar deep voice calls and Regina freezes, suddenly confronted with the image of the Huntsman, clad in leather and deer hide as he stares at her in disbelief.

 

"Your majesties, get away from her!" He shouts, nocking his arrow and pointing it at Regina. She raises her hand against him in warning, magic crackling along her palms as Snow grabs onto her hand and she puts it out. She shoots Snow a dirty look, one that garners her a raised eyebrow as the woman pats her a little condescendingly on the hand like a toddler and tells her to 'play nice'. Regina scoffs and yanks her hand away.

 

"Calm down mate." Hood pipes up as he marches over to her side. "She's one of our guests of honor."

 

"She is no guest of honor." Graham spits bitterly. "She's The Evil Queen. She's the one who trapped us in another realm for twenty eight years until the Savior came and -" he pauses, eyes going wide. "Where's Emma, did you kill her witch?!" He hisses.

 

"Graham calm down, let us explain." Snow interjects, shouldering her own bow and linking a hand with David. "We've lost some members of our family and long story short, I know it's impossible to believe but Regina's truly on our side now."

 

"She's been redeemed." David interjects.

 

"How'd you get here? Was this her doing or is the curse broken?" Graham asks, arrow still at the ready.

 

"A lot has happened since you last saw us." David says and the weary set to his face makes Graham disengage his weapon.

 

"Well, your majesties." Graham says as he opens the thick oaken side door he'd just slid out of. "Let me be the first to welcome you back to the Enchanted Forest but I'm afraid that I'm also the bearer of bad news." His eyes flicker over to Regina when he says the next part of his sentence. "We've infiltrated part of this castle now that the wicked witch has journeyed home but I'm afraid that she will be back and we haven't got much time."

 

"What exactly are you saying?" Snow asks.

 

"The wicked witch took over this castle months ago." Hood says, drawing their attention to the barrier placed around the rest of the castle. "The rest of it is sealed by blood magic and we cannot get to it."

 

* * *

 

They enter the palace hall and it's just as Regina remembered, only dustier.

 

Hood follows her. She's miffed at first, but he proves himself a worthy ally in showing her the unlocked portions of the palace and leading her up to the guest quarters that had been accessed. Regina's entirely grateful because she just had to get away from Graham's cold hard eyes and the distrust he practically radiated in her direction, realizing that had she not softened considerably, the man would have made it to an early grave.

 

She wanders into the rest of the supposed inaccessible areas and finds the chambers unlocked. She tries another and another and pretty soon she's unlocked the entire castle and freed it from the influence of blood magic.

 

Thoughts about this witch plague her and she supposes that maybe Cora had locked the castle with blood magic before coming to Storybrooke to keep thieves like Hood from the most precious parts of the castle.

 

She chooses a modestly sized room two corridors over from Leopold's old master bedroom, which Snow and Charming choose, unsurprisingly and they all congregated within the dinning hall and had a feast prepared by some of Robin and Graham's men.

 

As Snow and Charming caught everyone up on the things that had happened in Storybrooke, Graham remained impassive off at a corner with his silver wolf perched at his feet. His eyes seemed to bore straight into her and Regina promptly ignored him but felt her appetite flee even at the deliciously prepared chickens, potatoes, dates, caramel truffles, cakes and various wines that littered the table.

 

The hall was packed with people and soul creatures alike and Regina's heart quivered and she got sick of seeing Snow and Charming's soul creatures falling all over each other and she excused herself to her room.

 

* * *

 

Snow and Charming settle properly into palace life once more within the next few weeks and Regina tosses and turns in her sleep every night for that first week. She dreams of nothing when she sleeps and wakes grumpy and tired and snippy and generally a nuisance to whoever she happens to encounter.

 

Snow draws her a drought that gives her two nights of dreamless sleep but she still wakes up with that nervous sort of energy suffusing her stomach. She wants to see Henry, wants to see Emma, and she goes down into her old lair hidden beneath the castle floors and uses up all of her magic trying to see into the other realm. 

 

It works after her many attempts and she grows even more obsessed with perfecting the spell. She spends many nights passed out on the floor of that room, staring into the void of the blank mirror where she'd once trapped Sidney, too weak to even make it to bed. 

 

Snow finds her there one night, curled in on herself, tears on her face and her heart _pulsing_ , a dark thing riddled sparingly with red tints. And she cries openly as Snow cradles her against her chest and coaxes her into placing the organ back where it belongs. 

 

Snow helps her to her chambers that night and David sleeps in the adjoining servants quarters just to be close to them.

 

And under the quiet of night, cradled in the confines of Snow's arms, Regina admits quietly. "I'm in love with your daughter."

 

And Snow squeezes her back tightly and in a soft motherly voice she rarely uses for Regina, she admits. "I know."

 

* * *

 

Hood seems to be her only source of good company in the coming weeks and she speaks to him about how different life in Storybrooke was to the enchanted forest. He seems intrigued, and his little son Roland takes quite a shine to Regina. She becomes absolutely fond of the sweetly dimpled boy and on days where she feels way too cooped up in the castle doing nothing as she lets Snow and Charming deal with the political unrest, Regina finds herself seeking them out.

 

But even their lovely words and kind gestures can't seem to stop her from falling into a deeper melancholy as Roland only seems to remind her of raising Henry and she misses him and her Sheriff so much that she feels like she can't breathe.

 

* * *

 

 

Hood offers to take her out of the palace one day and she'd already bailed on him too many times to say no now so she dressed down in her old riding coats and tan pants and meets him in front of the palace.

 

His eyes fall over her, Regina notices, but she's different now. The old her would have taken advantage of a man's clear attraction to her, but now as she walks alongside Hood on their little quest to collect wild berries with Roland, Regina just lets it be and doesn't draw attention to it.

 

Roland's soul creature, a puppy he calls Scamp, rush on ahead through the trees and Roland's giggles bring a soft smile to her face - one that Hood compliments. She demurely accepts and turns to him as he shoots an apple clear out of a nearby tree and brings it to her.

 

It's then that she notices Hood's side is oddly blank and as she accepts the apple which she slices in halves with her magic to offer to him, she watches him for a while, dark eyes shifting looking for his soul creature. It was entirely possible that the thing had wandered off for a bit as was custom. Odette regularly did.

 

But they'd also been at the castle for close to four weeks already and she'd yet to see any creature of his. It actually leaves her curious.

 

"Where's your soul creature?" She asks boldly. Hood seems startled out of his head as he turns to her, quietly chewing on his half of the apple.

 

The smile he gives then is a little to tight for his friendly demeanor and Regina's immediately suspicious. "That's very forward of you, your majesty."

 

Regina raises an eyebrow. Unimpressed. "Humor me."

 

Hood adjusts his quiver of arrows on his shoulder, turns to her with a softer version of her eyebrow raise.

 

"It's not here." He supplies, unhelpfully. Regina rolls her eyes.

 

"Clearly. Where is it?"

 

"Seeing as you dont have one yourself, I could ask you the same question." He says, defensive.

 

And Regina doesn't have time for this.

 

"Fine." She says, picking up the pace as she walks on ahead of him, getting closer to Roland. And an odd sort of heavy silence falls over them as they watch the boy play with his soul creature. Hood shifts uneasily at her side and Regina knows that any minute now he's going to cave.

 

He sighs, heavily, and glances at her. She remains impassive to his presence, keeping an attentive eye opened for her supposed sister and her ridiculous animal minions that they'd been warned repeatedly about.

 

"He died." Hood says, softly. Too softly. Regina doesn't hear him.

 

"What's that?"

 

Hood grunts, adjusts his quiver sighs heavily "My soul creature. He died."

 

"Oh." Regina says, winded. She looks at him now with new eyes, ones that understand as he shuffles uneasily along at her side. "Mine died too." She admits quietly. And Hood's eyes immediately find hers. He suddenly becomes a greater ally.

 

Regina remembers that pain lancing through her chest, through her spine, through her brain. The pain of Odette dying and being cut off from her soul creature forever.

 

"He was a red fox." Hood continues, a little smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "I named him Tod."

 

Regina swallows dryly. "Mine was a white swan called Odette."

 

"A beautiful swan." Hood says. "Fitting for a beautiful queen."

 

"A cunning fox," she retorts a little too sharply. "Unsuitable for an un cunning thief."

 

"I am cunning." Hood protests, smiling so widely Regina can see all of his teeth. "You've just never seen me work."

 

Regina laughs. "Oh I know of your work Mr. Hood. The land without magic paints you as a fox but I really don't see it." She muses.

 

Hood chuckles. "You will your majesty, one of these days you will."

 

And a sort of companionable silence falls between them then as they reach the wild berry field and Roland's tiny head disappears between the bushes.

 

Regina's eyes grow sad as she glances up at Hood. "How did you survive?" She asks quietly. Hood tenses for a second, eyeing her wryly.

 

"My wife at the time." He says softly. "She made a deal with an imp, traded my life for her own."

 

"Oh." Regina says. "I'm sorry."

 

"How did you survive, your majesty?"

 

"Magic." She says. "My mother..." And she pauses here, the words constricting her throat even till this day. "It was a really long time ago."

 

Hood nods, seemingly understanding of her plight. "Yes but it's a feeling that stays with your forever."

 

"Indeed."

 

* * *

 

As the weeks drag by with nothing to do and no sign of this wicked witch, Regina starts getting antsy. Trapped once again within the walls of the castle, she feels herself going stir crazy, not getting a reprieve from her thoughts.

 

She feels haunted by the ghosts of her past within the castle walls. And her thoughts turn decidedly dark there as she virtually relives the horrors of being Leopold White's child bride every single night. 

 

She's distant from Snow and short with all the people who try their best to assist her. So they give her a wide berth. 

 

A silver lining only comes when she notices that Hood and his men have some horses in the stables that they use for outings and trips into the now flourishing city and she steels herself, changes from her palace attire into a soft pair of riding pants and an overcoat and she visits them. There's a big horse as dark as charcoal by the name of Shadow that she takes a shine to. Everyone else seems to avoid the beast but he wuffles and neighs whenever Regina arrives to brush him and feed him and he gives her a sense of belonging she hasn't felt in weeks.

 

It leaves her feeling just a bit more herself, having this connection to her younger self, to her past, and she steals away from the castle on Shadow's back, galloping across the giant moat and into the wide open forest.

 

The fresh air allows her to breathe more evenly here and her heart soars as the magic in her veins sings. 

 

She takes a detour into a little abandoned farm littered with apple trees and falls asleep pressed uncomfortably into the ridges of one of its barks, finding solace within her dreams.

 

* * *

 

Since returning to The Enchanted Forest, Regina had not had any proper dreams. They always fled her like the curl of magical wisps, just out of her reach. 

 

But now, as she dreams, she's walking through a city. But not just any city. She stops abruptly in front of one of those monuments erected in the city of Boston and she gasps at the name and her heart races as Odette flies off ahead of her, leading her down two more blocks and out onto the property of a rich gated sprawling apartment building.

 

She searches and searches but doesn't find what she's looking for and wakes a few minutes later a little disgruntled but still so hopeful and abandons her directionless ride as she heads back towards the castle.

  

* * *

 

As the months pass by, Regina actually grows more fond of Snow White, actively seeking her out when she takes her trips behind the castle to that place where her father's apple tree now took up residence once more.

 

Regina ditches all of her severe corsets for a more demure look of riding coats and leather trousers. They suit her just well, and the citizens of the kingdom who had given her a wide berth suddenly start tentatively coming around the palace once more.

 

She finally musters up the courage one day to ride to the old Mills estate where she grew up and she packs a few bags for the journey as she prepares to leave. Hood stops her on the way, bowing low and asking to accompany her.

 

"I'd actually rather do this on my own." She says a bit stiffly.

 

"Yes but a fair lady needs protection." Hood insists. Regina raises an eyebrow.

 

"This land once needed protection from me." She says, amused. "Or are you forgetting exactly who it is you're speaking to?" 

 

"Ah, forgive me." He says. "And allow me to accompany you until you meet the outskirts of Sherwood Forest. I have some business to attend to in the area."

 

Regina considers his proposal for a bit and agrees under the condition that Hood wouldn't tell a soul.

 

"Why? Don't want people to know what you're up to?" Graham replies. Regina startles a bit, having not heard him when he'd entered the room. She looks on over towards him, sees his lips pressed into a tight line and rolls her eyes.

 

"I'm not up to anything heinous."

 

"Debatable." Graham says and Regina fights the urge within her to retort with something scathing. Instead, she turns on her heel and continues saddling Shadow.

 

"I'll be with her, but so far she's been fairly docile." Hood remarks and Regina bristles.

 

"Don't let her meek exterior fool you, she's a feisty one." Graham says. "Isn't that right, Madam Mayor?"

 

"If you're anxious Huntsman, then perhaps you should accompany us?" She throws out mockingly and Graham grunts and folds his arms as he leans against the barn door. 

 

"I don't need to. My wolves will inform me of everything. Even unsupervised trips to the forest that end with you crying your eyes out, _your majesty_." The moniker falls from his lips mockingly and she bristles at his words and what his wolves would have told him about her.

 

She scoffs, continues brushing her horse and fights the urge to send him sprawling out the door on his ass. "Your wolves obey whatever you say?"

 

"They do whatever they please. They're free souls and they should always remain as such." Graham growls and Regina just knows that he's referring to her having stolen his heart and imprisoned him in Storybrooke. She sighs heavily and says nothing more. Hood clears his throat a little awkwardly and shoulders his quiver as he attaches a few bags to his horse. 

 

"I'm off to bid my lad goodbye." He addresses Regina. "I imagine you'd be doing the same with the royals." And then he walks off, patting Graham on the shoulder as he leaves the barn.

 

It's an offhanded comment but nonetheless, it surprises Regina. She hadn't even considered telling Snow and Charming where she was going and that makes her feel a little guilty. But they were so wrapped up in each other lately with the state of the kingdom and Snow's new pregnancy. She really didn't want to be a bother.

 

Graham's eyes distrustfully follow her every movement as she attaches her bags to her horse and has to resist the need to rolls her eyes or toss Graham out of the barn.

 

When she was satisfied at her horse's condition and the load he had, she turns on her heel and struts out the door of the barn.

 

Graham catches her around the wrist and she stills as he releases her. "Be careful on the northward side of the forest." Is all he says before he turns and leaves and Regina blinks at his retreating figure and can't help but miss the easy going bond they'd formed under the falsehood of Storybrooke. 

 

* * *

 

Regina and Hood make good time journeying towards the forest and the first day finds them practically a few miles from the outskirts of it. They find a little alcove to make camp for the night and leave before dawn the next morning. 

 

Regina was almost silent the entire ride over. She was so lost in thought she didn't notice the arrow coming her way until she was knocked off of her horse by Hood. She hisses as she falls to the ground, the impact dislocating her shoulder as she glares at Hood and finally notices the six flying monkey creatures surrounding him. They held arrows with them this time, but Hood's arrows were true and hit their mark every single time. He took down two by shooting them in the wing before one blindsided him and knocked him to the ground with its body. That sprung Regina into action and she unleashed her magic in a swirl of purple energy that encompassed the other four and bound them all together.

 

It was a fair amount of work getting them all together and Hood insisted that they be left alive since they were the bodies of some of his men and the business he had in Sherwood Forest was to retrieve an antidote that would return them to their true forms. 

 

They left the raging animals bound and gagged and soon they were off again, reaching the halfway point of the forest at dusk. They parted ways then and Regina journeyed on for a couple of miles before deciding to rest within the base of a hollowed out tree. 

 

She didn't make a fire like she ached to do as her tired frozen limbs protested her previous decision to simply poof herself a couple of thick quilted blankets. So she simply nestles warmly within them and clung desperately to that pendant of Henry she had dangling from her neck.

 

Like every single night, the intensity of her grief overwhelmed her and she was left gasping for air as those deep keening sobs tore mercilessly out of her. She muffled it just barely beneath her warm blankets and soon drifted off into another fitful sleep.

 

Her dreams lead her to a forested path which she takes without qualms, walking for what felt like hours until she saw Odette's features, clear against the murky color of the background. She smiled, wobbly and relieved as Odette turned to her with those beautiful emerald eyes that shone -- a brilliant white and Regina's heart beats itself numb against her chest as her anticipation grows.

 

She's instantly transported to that curious sprawling apartment in the city again and promptly led into the building, past the lobby and up five flights of stairs. She's anxious, heart screaming at her to cease with the anticipation but she doesn't and she's unprepared for when she's entering the staircase on the next flight of stairs and her body collides with another.

 

Warm gentle arms catch her firmly around the waist and suddenly she's staring up into those warm familiar green eyes.

 

And she launches herself into the arms of Emma Swan and promptly breaks down.

 

* * *

 

Regina jerks awake, the tears from her dreams curiously streaming down her face as she sniffles loudly. She can't believe she'd seen her, that she'd seen Emma. Her heart hurts so much over that brief meeting that she sits on her bedding, overwhelmed with tears for an indeterminable amount of time.

 

She gets up shakily from her sleeping spot and mutely packs up her things and saddles Shadow before they're off again well before the break of dawn.

 

She gets to the outskirts of the abandoned Mills estate later than same evening.

 

The entire house had remained as it was, no doubt being held together by Cora's latent magical powers. Regina steels herself against the overwhelming grief that hits her when she sees the stables and instead makes her way into the still functional house.

 

It's dusty and smells curiously like mold but most of it had been preserved by her mother's magic.

 

She brushes down Shadow, feeds him and ties him on a post right outside of the house, not daring to venture into the stables.

 

The house itself feels weighted down by the oppressive magic and as Regina ventures up the stairs and into her childhood room, she feels it acutely. The inhibiting sensation, the spell over the room the curiously sucks all of the magic out of the air as it tries to suppress the magic in her veins. And her blood boils at the amount of times she was forced to sleep in here by her mother.

 

With a flick of her wrist, the spell is gone and Regina breathes easily in that room for the first time in years and she even braves the fright of her childhood nerves and sleeps there that night.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Her dreams take her back to that stairwell she'd ran into Emma and Regina waits anxiously for her to come. 

 

Regina doesn't have to wait long, Bagheera comes shuffling down the stairs and practically tackles her to the floor and Regina sighs blissfully as he licks her cheek.

 

"Bagheera!" That voice Regina would know anywhere cries sternly and as she round the corner dressed in skinny jeans and a hoodie, Regina wants to sob with relief.

 

"Oh." Emma pauses. "You again."

 

Regina's face burns and Bagheera licks her cheek as she stands and offers Emma a smile. "Yes, me again." Regina says, totally at a loss for what to say to Emma.

 

Emma smiles at her then curiously tilts her head. "I guess you're my soulmate."

 

And Regina blanches. "I..."

 

"Took your swell time getting here."

 

* * *

 

Regina ransacks Cora's magical tomes the next day and promptly begins searching for any oddities on soulmates. She comes across the same -- people are born with soul creatures who guide them to their soulmates. There's also a bunch of other stuff on soulmates and true love but nothing on soulmates who share true love other than it was rare and Regina closes the books in a huff, packs some in her satchel and leaves the Mills estate after lunch.

 

She ends up meeting Hood at the path where they'd went their separate ways. 

 

"Were you successful in aiding your friends, Mr Hood?" Regina asks as she saddles up next to him and Hood nods. 

 

"I had some of the villagers come collect them and take them back home after we administered the antidote, your majesty."

 

"Good, I imagine they'd be disoriented."

 

Hood nods. "I trust you were successful in your endeavors, malady?" 

 

Regina just nods but doesn't elaborate. "Enough with the formalities." She says. "My name's Regina." 

 

Hood smiles and shuffles around in his bag as they trot through the frequented path of the forest. "Care to have an apple, Regina?" He lifts an outstretched hand towards her palm up and Regina freezes at the mark tattooed on his arm.  And she brushes him off, takes off in a thundering gallop into the woods and ices him out. Cursing soulmates and absent dead soul creatures and stupid Tinkerbell.

 

* * *

 

 

She doesn't stop to give Shadow a rest until they reach the castle grounds at an ungodly hour in the morning. She brings Shadow to a halt when she notices the flying beasts twirling in the air directly over the castle and promptly races to get the horse to the stablehand. 

 

She races up to the tower where Snow and Charming and their half assembled royal guards were fighting off the flying monkeys. The monkeys were promptly winning the fighting, having injured most of the men either by bites or by taking them flying off of the tower and Regina had had enough of the insanity.

 

In a swirl of purple energy, all of the rampaging creatures froze where they stood, either mid air, on the floor or mid attack and Regina curled her fist together to assemble them all in one pile in the room.

 

"Regina!" Snow yells upon seeing her and suddenly she was being tackled in a fierce parental hug by the two idiots.

 

"We sent word to see if you were okay." Charming murmurs against her hair. "We heard the wicked witch was coordinating these attacks everywhere and -"

 

"We were worried we wouldn't see you again." Snow finishes tearfully and Regina wont admit that her heart warms considerably as she regards them both.

 

She clears her throat. "I'm fine." 

 

"Did Robin return with you?" And at the mention of the man's name, Regina stiffens. 

 

"I suppose he would." She says, disentangling herself from them.

 

"Come on, let's get the men all bandaged up and then we can talk about whats happening here." Snow says and they all turn to deal with the wounded and the dead men and soul creatures alike who had partaken in the battle. 

 

* * *

 

That night, snuggled within the warm covers of her bedchambers, she dreams of Emma again.

 

Emma's so delighted to see her and they sit in Regina's old study and Regina quivers at the sight of her.

 

"What's wrong?" Emma asks, so concerned and so beautiful. Some of her mannerisms are different now as Regina observes her silently. Where the Sheriff's tone was deceptively light and gruff, this Emma's somewhat of a curious mixture, having an almost angelic lilt to her voice that warms Regina's heart.

 

She also dresses differently, sporting frilly flowery blouses and skirts paired with combat boots as a little of the old Emma in her shines true.

 

And Regina's going to hurt over the answer to this question no matter how she poses it. "How are you so sure I'm your soulmate?" 

 

Emma shuffles on over at her side and nudges her coyly. "I saw you in my dreams a lot as a kid." And Regina doesn't know if that's just the influence that the curse had over her memories. "I never ever got close enough to talk to you." Emma says softly. "But I'd recognize those eyes anywhere." Emma smiles down at the panther lying on the rug. "Bagheera has the same color eyes and he kept leading me to you."

 

"But -" And Regina struggles to remember the soulmate rules for the real world. "You didn't always have Bagheera with you."

 

Emma's eyes narrow. "Yes I did." Regina knows she's lying.

 

"And soul creatures are supposed to be with a person from birth. They're also simply extensions of yourself and don't lead you to your-"

 

"Alright!" Emma cuts her off sharply. "I've heard that same sentence all my life okay? And yes, you're right. I've only had Bagheera for about ten years now." The panther looks on over at them curiously. "But I did see your face a lot as a kid. I don't know how or why....and I believe you're my soulmate because why else would you be here in my dreams?"

 

Regina doesn't really have an answer to that.

 

"You appeared right after my fiancé proposed to me." Emma continues. Regina's heart drops. "And if that's not a sign, then I don't know what is."

 

"Y-You have a fiancé?" Regina forces out and Emma smiles a bit shakily.

 

"Yeah. His name is Walsh. We've been together for about a year now."

 

"B-But why would you think I'm your soulmate if -"

 

"See, I know what you're thinking. But this is just a dream, right? And out there...out there I have Henry and Walsh and that's stability for us, for him. I want to do right by us."

 

That infuriates Regina. "How are you so sure that I'm not real?" She asks stiffly.

 

Emma's lips press tightly together. "If I ask you to meet me anywhere else but here, out in the real world when I'm awake, would you come?"

 

And Regina's ire deflates and she can't quite meet Emma's eyes. "You're right." She says softly. "I'm not real."

 

* * *

 

Apparently the wicked witch was very fond of sending her monkeys swarming in droves and Regina takes them all out before they can hurt anyone. Ruby and Graham curiously come to her aid and they work quickly, disarming the monkeys and administering the antidote Hood had made available.

 

They form a tentative alliance, one which Regina enjoys as the wolves and Ruby quickly fend off any intruders to the castle as the wicked witch ups the ante and increases the numbers that come at them drastically.

 

They take them all out and administering the antidote to them with dart guns Regina conjures up makes everything easier.

 

* * *

 

"Tell me about yourself?" Emma asks the next time they're sitting in Regina's study alone together.

 

"I...have a son." She says and Emma's eyes light up like that was the best news. She contains a bit of her enthusiasm as she admits that the Henry she'd mentioned the last time they spoke was her son.

 

"He's so smart." Emma gushes. "He's been doing so well in Math lately." And Regina tries not to cry as she allows Emma to talk about their son and she tries to hold in the bone deep sadness that washes over here because she can't physically be there with them.

 

She pointedly ignores any and all mentions of this Walsh and just falls into Emma's eyes and her happy smile and wishes she was the cause of it.

 

* * *

 

Regina continuously pours over those old magical tomes and even the ones she has gathered from her personal stash and finds a line about soul creatures existing in dreams in different realms. She scoffs and flips the page. That wasn't new information. That's how soul creatures existed in the land without magic. 

 

She also finds a page that speculated that soulmates met in another realm of consciousness called _Narnia_ and she pauses at the find and feels her heart begin to race. She often heard about the place as a child but never enough information. She didn't even bother reading that book series she'd bought Henry when he'd insisted he just had to have it.

 

Regina directs her next search to finding out more details about the realm of Narnia but only finds more speculation on it neither being a real realm nor real consciousness and in fact, it was rumored to not exist as no one had ever been to or from there.

 

She feels oddly deflated and by the time she's done browsing through her books, the night had already given in to day.

 

Unable to put her whirling thoughts at rest, she skips sleep in favor of having breakfast with Snow and Charming. Snow notices her sullen mood immediately and asks her to take a trip with her into the city. She declines, as politely as she can muster and after they discuss their plans for the day, she changes into her riding clothes and goes down to the stables.

 

She's brushing Shadow down after going out for a ride over the castle grounds when a voice startles her.

 

"You ride well." And Regina turns to see Graham at the barn door, arms folded across his chest and eyes looking at any point but her.

 

She turns back to Shadow, pats his muzzle and gives him an apple before turning back to face Graham. "It's a skill I learned as a girl."

 

Graham nods. "You're a natural."

 

Regina's a tad bit surprised by the tentative civility. "Thank you."

 

An odd silence falls between them then as Regina puts the horse's brush away and Graham shuffles uncomfortably and clears his throat. "I uh, wanted to apologize." 

 

Regina dusts herself off, turning to side eye him. "What on earth for?"

 

Graham makes a little sound in his throat. "I misjudged you, you truly have changed." He says softly.

 

"And I'm sorry for." She grimaces. "The heart thing."

 

Graham nods jerkily and he turns on his heel and leaves and Regina feels like maybe they could try to be acquaintances here.

 

* * *

 

"So, I figured out what you're doing." Emma says pointedly as Regina wanders idly around the room. It looked like such an exact replica of her study in Storybrooke that she half expected to hear Henry running in the house.

 

Regina raises an eyebrow. "Oh?"

 

"You're learning all about me but I learned like, zilch about you. I mean I still don't even know your name. You say mine all the time."

 

Regina sighs heavily. "My apologies. But regardless of your naturally curious nature, I can assure you that my horrifying past is not worth your time, Miss Swan."

 

* * *

 

In the following weeks as they fight away droves of evil flying monkeys, Graham and Regina grow closer. Ruby comes over now and again as she helps Granny over at the tavern more often than any in the village and Graham and Regina usually sit and start having actual conversations after defeating the monkeys. This becomes routine for them.

 

And soon they let Snow and Charming know that the monkey attacks were decreasing in numbers.

 

"How did you remember your past life?" Regina asks Graham softly one day when they're at the stables, a note of regret and shame in her tone. Graham looks on over at her.

 

He smiles, wanly. "I kissed Emma."

 

"You what?!" She barks sharply. Graham's eyes widen considerably and Regina's cheeks color. That jealously from so long ago rearing it's ugly head as she turns to him and desperately tries to control it.

 

He doesn't seem to miss it though, holds his hands placatingly as he takes a little step back from where she's just mounted her steed. "I was in a bad place, I was seeing visions of my soul creature, memories were twisting inside of my head, I thought I was going crazy."

 

"So logically the next step is to plant your lips on your deputy." Regina hisses.

 

Graham rolls his eyes. "Hey, she liked me. I could tell."

 

And Regina _wants_ to hurt him.

 

"She most certainly did not." Regina scoffs.

 

Graham raises an eyebrow. "Did she tell you that?"

 

"No." Regina says simply. "But Emma doesn't have to, I _know_ what she likes." And Regina didn't mean to insert so much sultry innuendo into that sentence but she did and Graham's head immediately jerks up just as he mounts the brown horse on Regina's side.

 

His eyes go wide, comically so and a second later he's smirking.

 

Regina rolls her eyes. 

 

"I thought you were jealous because of the possibility of me and her getting together but..." he shakes his shaggy head, curls tumbling down against his face as he smiles.

 

Regina presses her lips tightly together as she nudges her horse into a trot. "Yes, well. Even that came as a surprise to me."

 

"You called her Emma." 

 

"So?"

 

"You always use her last name. I was wrong. You were not in love with me. You're in love with her."

 

Regina sighs. Tiredly. Raises dark eyes towards Graham and can't even deny the truth to his words as her heart squeezes painfully in her chest.

 

"I was." She admits quietly, throat burning at the past tense to her words. "I am." She laughs, sharp and pained and trembles, on the verge of tears. "The Evil Queen brought to her knees by her love for the Savior. How's that for a twist in the story?"

 

"You'll meet her again one day." Graham says. Sure and confident. Regina chuckles a little wetly.

 

"How are you so sure?"

 

"Because the people who are meant to be together always find their way back to each other."

 

Regina grimaces and rolls her eyes. "I think you're in dire need of some time away from the castle Huntsman, you're beginning to sound a lot like Snow." she says and swiftly takes off in a gallop across the grounds and straight into that little abandoned apple farm she had found. 

 

Graham chuckles and immediately follows after her. They dismount their horses upon entering the grounds, leaving them untethered to roam the grounds as they settle down at the base of an apple tree.

 

"Nothing wrong with having a little bit of hope, your majesty." And for the first time Regina doesn't flinch as the moniker drops, soft and reverent from his lips.

 

"We're not meant to be together." Regina says ruefully.

 

"And why not?" He asks. And as Regina peers up into calming evergreen eyes, so like the forest, she decides to trust Graham. "Because I already know who my soulmate is."

 

Graham is stunned. "But how - I mean I thought you didn't have a soul creature?"

 

Regina makes a displeased sound at that. "I dont."

 

Graham shakes his head. "Then I don't understand."

 

"Pixie dust." Is all she says. Graham pauses.

 

"You had help from a fairy?"

 

Regina smiles. "Indeed."

 

"Who did you get matched to?"

 

"I'd rather not say."

 

Graham tilts his head, the action just like his wolf Kaa who also does the same as Regina scratches that little patch behind his ear, curling her fingers into downy silvery fur. "Are they here?" Graham asks intuitively.

 

Regina looks out onto the green pastures, out into the woods where Hood had disappeared and nods miserably. Graham says nothing more and Regina feels grateful for the reprieve from probing questions and settles herself fully against the bark of the tree, lulled into peaceful slumber by the soothing noise of the forest in the day time.

 

* * *

 

"Why are you holding me at a distance?" Emma huffs as soon as she sits down next to her the next time they meet. Regina blanches, turns to look at Emma and is amused at that annoyed little furrow between her brows. She immediately wants to reach out and touch it, smooth it away with her thumb. But she resists and instead deflects the Savior's questions.

 

"Because, my past isn't important."

 

"Well you are to me." Emma insists and Regina's melting under the direct assault of those green eyes.

 

"It won't make sense to you, Miss Swan." She says carefully. "It would do you no good to dwell on strange dream people when you have a very real fiancé out there."

 

Emma rolls her eyes. "Try me, I've been told I'm very intuitive. And besides, you're interesting. I want to know every single thing about you."  The reverent way that Emma says it hits Regina fiercely.

 

But she remains mute and Emma tilts her head and asks so sweetly, so softly. "Why are you holding me at a distance?"

 

And that's it. Regina tells her everything.

 

She admits that she'd pushed the Sheriff away constantly because she was always grappling with her own self-loathing.

 

Because Emma deserves better than her, better than a broken shell of a woman still struggling, clinging to her inner darkness, trying to leave behind a manipulative mother and lost love that was abruptly snatched away and weighed way too heavily on her shoulders.

 

Struggling since she was thrust into the world to live up to expectations. To be what everyone wanted her to be. A Queen, a step-mother, a puppet, a soulmate.

 

And each role took a piece of her soul with it, steadily erasing the idealistic girl who once thought she'd fallen in love with a stable boy --  but it was so much better, she had fallen in love with a brave loyal foster girl who could hold her own -- her only choice that had been something wonderful, that brightened the light in her soul.  But that had ended so tragically.

 

It was her love, not for Daniel, but for Emma who felt achingly like her lost soulmate, that love that had sparked the embers of her fiery hatred for the world that simmered quietly beneath the confines of her heart due to the void Mother had created with her carefully crafted mocking semblance of love. It created scars no one could see and yet scars everyone could see.

 

No one was good enough for Regina in Mother's eyes. No friendships she was able to form for short periods on her own.

 

And suddenly Regina was alone again in a castle that fell over itself to please the King and his daughter, a castle that paid reverence to the late Queen Ava -- a castle that never felt welcoming to her with its too cold stone walls that looked like another cage, albeit more elaborate, that she didn't want to be in.

 

And the years spent as Queen and step-mother to a family she never wanted to join. Step-mother to the girl that was the vessel through which Mother had trapped her in another cage. A girl that had been unable to keep a secret -- a girl who was the catalyst that left the imprint of pain festering deep within her heart, dredging up that helplessness that curdled her soul when the King took her to bed.

 

And it continued, and she never got used to his touches, even when they turned forceful, gripping her with a strength that created bruises along soft skin. Daniel's memory and Emma's gentle kisses not enough to block out the hard press of the man that took her before she was even ready. And she never cried out, but she did cry, silent tears that streamed down her face as she laid there while he used her as a vessel.

 

His anger was frightening when he realized that she could not give him an heir. She was immediately moved to another room -- the guest room in the west wing where he paid her spontaneous visits that always, always managed to grip her with fear and anxiety.

 

He took her more forcefully in that room, the stench of soured alcohol always potent on his breath when he kissed her, stripping her bare, always bare, as he stood fully clothed with only the bulging press of his crotch between her legs petrifying her to the point where she shut her mind and her heart out to any and all of his whims. She'd pass the time hidden deep within her subconscious mind or actively pass out from the pain, until he'd grunted and shuddered above her, releasing himself deep within and pressing the full weight of his limp sweaty form on top of her.

 

He'd leave right after that, no parting words, no eye contact, only grunted insults as he shoved himself back into his breeches and slammed the heavy oaken door. Regina would curl in on herself then as she gingerly tightened her legs, uncaring of the ache that left her sex burning with raw pain and sore to the point of tears yet convinced that she had deserved this harsh treatment in some way.

 

And the Kingdom also resented her -- living in the shadow of their deceased Queen was a nightmare she couldn't fathom. After all, there was no recognition for a Queen who couldn't bear an heir. 

 

And the power offered to her by the imp came at the most opportune time -- she was desperate for an out, weak in a way she'd resented and she was an easy target for him as he molded her in the ways of dark magic, finally giving a carefully crafted out to the monster that laid dormant within as he carried out his own agenda.

 

He'd told her she was brilliant, gave her the attention she was desperate for…and the attention she wasn't desperate for that was brushed off as accidental. But those accidental touches grew more frequent and purposeful. It always always managed to leave her empty inside, like the rivers of a slow steady poison that gripped at her insides and twisted them into something sick and awful.

 

Attention and praises for magic competence that came in hard touches that had fear gripping her heart once more, reminded so much of the King that it had her frozen just like she often was. If she dared resist, the grip of magical restraints that marred her delicate skin and bruised her in ways that didn't fade would make her give in.

 

Even though those marks eventually would fade through his use of magic, the marks created on her soul wouldn't.

 

And every time she was taken against her will she grew even more hateful and resentful. At the King. At the imp. But mostly at herself for being so deluded into thinking that somebody would save her from the nightmare that she could no longer escape within her dreams.

 

She fell into a dark place in her mind, one that warred with continuing her bleak existence, with being just a puppet for everyone and everything that influenced her life.

 

In a haze of melancholic despair she'd fallen from the balcony of the upper level of the castle, an out of place scream tearing from her lips as her brief life flashed before her eyes and she'd made peace with her time on earth -- only to be promptly caught in midair.

 

And such a novel experience of meeting one of those fairies who got to choose which child's wishes were granted was again tainted by talks of a soulmate -- one who'd been procured as such by pixie dust from that rogue fairy. She'd all but ran from that tavern when they'd found him, the fright of change and the promise of happiness making her throat constrict to the point of agony as she scampered back to the imp.

 

But again, like always, she was a pawn in someone else's plan. And she'd played it spectacularly, letting the very earth shake with the burbling coldness of the loneliness of her youth, the hot flames of her anger at the injustice she experienced within the blinding white noise of her pain as her magic manifested within.

 

The King soon paid the price.

 

Dead inside for all the world to see, and everyone did see, unable to notice anything beyond the cold frosty exterior of the murderous rage that had hardened a once very timid Queen or the dark beautiful eyes that glimmered with hatred. A hatred that had too many factors that had shaped it -- but one that was an easy target.

 

Snow White.

 

After all, she'd convinced herself that she was unlovable. _Love was weakness_ \-- Mother's mantra whispered fiercely in her ear. It became a mantra that she'd taken on fully.

 

She'd raged at the world, convinced that she'd never find a love like that ever again.

 

And that love, at least for her, was unattainable.

 

Then Henry had come into her life. Her beautiful idealistic little boy who she’d gave the rest of her heart to, determined to do right by him. She would not be like her mother.

 

And ten years later he'd turned on her and bought the bane of her existence to town, his birth mother, the Savior, Storybrooke's stubborn Sheriff -- the woman currently looking at her like she was someone worth saving.

 

And now Regina's afraid again.

 

Watching Emma laid bare before her, all manner of emotions exposed glistening across her pale cheeks, and her unknowing smile, she felt weak. No longer was she dead inside, or gripped with a fear that haunted her with a sense of foreboding. No, this fear was lighter, it was the fear of her working heart, a fear that Emma Swan was someone she longed to give the rest of her battered heart to. Someone she wanted to immerse herself in, someone who was selfless without a second thought.

 

Emma breaks through her lengthy worded confession with a concerned tilt of the head, eyes questioningly roving over Regina's face. as she reaches out to her. "Okay you were right, half of that went completely over my head." She rolls her eyes, scooting closer to Regina's side of the couch. Emma swallows thickly. "I can't beat that lengthy speech. But I will admit that I feel like I know you." Emma says quietly. "And my heart seems to know you. And I know you deserve love."

 

Regina's heart took flight at the press of gentle hands upon her wrists, at the level of care burning within emerald eyes, at the whispered words of reassurance and the quiet belief in her that was such a novelty it moved her like nothing else.

 

Emma Swan was intoxicating.

 

And maybe that was only because Regina was still so lonely -- even now when she'd lost the son who she loves so fiercely and she'd found the soulmate she'd ran from -- one who's life she'd supposedly ruined by not entering that tavern.

 

And a town that now didn't look upon her with only disdain.

 

Emma's too pure, too good for Regina to inevitably ruin, but maybe this is Regina's weakness. Maybe this is the proof that she deserves to be branded with the dark mark of evil written starkly across the blackened veins of her heart.

 

Because she's selfish.

 

She _wants_ Emma.

 

Wants her so badly that her stomach knots and coils tightly, apprehension being the sole emotion traversing through her veins.

 

So she gives in. She gives in and leans into Emma for the first time since they'd sat down to have these new discussions in this dreamworld, presses her lips to Emma's in a kiss that makes her heart quiver so much she broke it off immediately, making that kiss abrupt and slightly awkward as she pulls away with panic in her eyes and lead in her veins.

 

And Emma just watches her, stunned, and Regina can't bear to see the cold hard press of rejection stealing across those gentle features she's come to adore.

 

So she turns tail and runs -- disappears in a vortex of swirling purple before Emma can even formulate her thoughts.

 

 

* * *

 

Hood tries getting Regina to talk to him again. He starts coming to the stables again to see her when he knows she'll be there with Shadow and Regina feels uncomfortable beneath his too observant eyes.

 

"Did I somehow manage to offend you, your majesty?" He asks meekly. "I do apologize."

 

Regina idly combs her fingers through Shadow's hair, not dignifying the man with a look. "No Mr Hood. I suddenly had other obligations."

 

"I see." Hood says and Regina turns away from the horse to see his lips pressed into a firm tight line. He stands at the entrance to the stables as if unsure if Regina would welcome him in fully. 

 

She's nothing if not direct and she can't stand this tentative disquiet so she says something that she knows might rattle him.

 

"Did you ever have dreams about your soulmate?"

 

"Dreams?" Hood's clearly taken off guard by the change in topic. "No." He admits wryly. "Did you?"

 

And here Regina swallows dryly. "I don't know what my dreams were trying to tell me."

 

She shies away from him then, makes some excuse about needing to see Snow and slips past him out of the barn, set on making sure she's never alone with him, even if she has to essentially drag Graham away from his perch in the castle tower where he insists he 'guards' them.

 

Just as she's about to reach the palace entryway, Graham calls her over to her apple tree.

 

She raises an eyebrow as she approaches, seeing the man eyeing the tree like he was getting ready to climb it.

 

"You better not be thinking what I think you're thinking." She growls, slightly playful but also murderously serious and Graham chuckles at her tone and shoots her an amused smile.

 

"I would never." He says cheekily as he fishes an apple from his pockets that he'd already picked and bites savagely into its flesh. Regina rolls her eyes.

 

"One upon a time people would fear this tree." She sighs ruefully, sitting herself primly in the grass. Graham follows immediately, dropping down to her side and shuffling back against the tree.

 

"Yes well, once upon a time I wouldn't dare to be sitting here doing this." Regina side eyes him as he clears his throat. "I uh, overheard your discussion with Hood back there." He says softly. Regina bristles.

 

"Oh."

 

"Yeah I'm sorry but it wasn't intentional eavesdropping, I was coming to ask you to go riding but you'd probably already been out on the grounds and then you mentioned seeing your soulmate within your dreams and I just had to tell you."

 

Regina curls her feet beneath herself as she turns to him, eyes taking in his nervous ticks as his eyes shifted over the grounds. "What is it?"

 

"I've never met my soulmate in real life." He says softly.

 

Regina's brows furrow, falling to the silvery wolf who she could see running with Roland and Scamp in the distance. "But isn't Kaa supposed to take you to them?"

 

"Oh, I never said he hasn't."

 

And Regina's more confused now.

 

"Spit it out, Huntsman." 

 

"I've been having dreams of a boy, ever since I was old enough to remember. We'd play together, go on adventures in far off places." He shakes his head. "Before the curse, I tried looking for him but I know now that he was never truly from this land."

 

"What did you do?"

 

"We talked a lot in our dreamscapes. I know him like I know my own shadow."

 

"You love him." Regina says. It wasn't a question. Graham's eyes lit up considerably when talking about this man he'd met.

 

"I do." He admits quietly.

 

"Do you still see him every time you go to sleep?" Regina asks, intrigued.

 

"Most of the time." Graham says. "But I have no idea of how we'll ever truly meet. Peter had a destiny different to mine, one tied to another realm, a different land teeming with magic. He often visited it, told me about it."

 

"So does that mean that soulmate rules are different there?"

 

Graham nods. "He told me that they were linked to dreams and that's why he was sure that we were soulmates. It's certainly not custom here in the Enchanted Forest."

 

Regina nods quietly, heart thudding hopefully at Graham's revelation. He turns to her then, a tiny smile curving around his lips. "Who do you dream of, your majesty?"

 

"That's a bit forward of you, Huntsman." She says primly. Graham laughs.

 

"My apologies, but you've been sullen and prone to even more emotional outbursts lately. So does that mean that you've seen them again?"

 

"That's highly offensive." She says but she smiles anyway.

 

"Ah ha! So I am right."

 

She nods, reaching down to the grass beneath her knees and tugging at it in distraction. 

 

"So, who's your soulmate?" He asks and Regina smiles, but it dims considerably when she considers her predicament. 

 

"According to the customs of the Enchanted Forest, its Mr Hood." She grimaces. "But according to my dreams..." And here she sighs blissfully. "It's Emma."

 

"Oh." Graham says. "That's a very unusual predicament."

 

"Two soulmates." Regina sighs frustratedly. "But only one adheres to the rules of our land."

 

"What are you going to do?"

 

"I don't know." She casts her gaze towards the castle where Snow and Charming were now arriving from their visit to another kingdom and then over to where Roland and Hood were caught up in each other, laughing infectiously as they wrestled in the grass.

 

Hood seems to feel her heavy gaze and soon he glances in her direction. Regina immediately looks away.

 

* * *

 

That night when Regina dreams, Odette leads her into Emma's apartment. But this time she freezes at the doorway when she sees Henry, so full of life, laughing blissfully along with Emma as they play video games. 

 

He looks a bit taller, and as Regina counts back the months quickly in her head, she realizes that he was almost a full year older. 

 

At her first tentative sob, she wills herself to stop, trying desperately not to get overwhelmed by her grief as she swallows thickly and longs for them so fervently that her heart aches.

 

A few seconds later, there's a knock on the door and Emma gets up to answer it, revealing Hook. Regina blanches, unaware of how the pirate could have possibly gotten there as he stands before Emma with those stupidly yearning doe eyes that fall all over her body. And Regina's immediately on the alert.

 

"Hope this works." He says in greeting and he slams his cold chapped lips against hers. Regina's fists clench so hard that her magic spritz against her palm as she glares at Captain Hook.

 

Emma reacts immediately, decks him in the groin with her knee and slams a fist into his face. Regina's immediately placated.

 

"What the hell are you doing?!" She shrieks as Hook shrivels up in pained agony. "Henry, go inside!" She yells to her son and Henry finally pauses his game to regard her with tiny confused brows. "Do it. Now!" And Henry's natural curiosity shines through as he takes a peek at the pirate on the ground and then immediately scampers off into his room.

 

"Sorry love, had to try." The leather clad buffoon groans, hands shielding his groin as he twists in pain.

 

Emma pulls out the big guns, literally, she reaches for her side, takes her pistol out from that little sling against her thigh and points it at him. Regina's eyes go wide.

 

"I'll fucking blow your sorry miserable ass to fucking pieces if you don't leave right now you piece of scum." She hisses, rage burning within emerald eyes so deep like the ocean, Regina thinks that Hook probably thinks its an honorable way to die. He staggers to his feet and tries placating the riled woman.

 

And an odd little seed of pride lodges in Regina's chest. Emma can certainly still hold her own. And as Regina feels the magic dwindling, pulling her back into the Enchanted Forest, she presses herself against Emma's side, hears a sharp intake of breath and she can't really tell but it's as if suddenly, for a moment, Emma's eyes lock with hers. Sees straight into hers. And Regina jerks awake. Stunned. Heart racing in her chest as Snow bursts into her room to inform her that the wicked witch was spotted on her way to the castle.

 

* * *

 

Zelena creates a maelstrom of trouble as she waltz into the castle announcing her relation to Regina and the curse she had concocted to make them all her loyal subjects.

 

As another curse looms, a putrid green in the distance, Regina, Snow and Charming concoct a plan of their own. The couple casts the dark curse, splitting a heart between them and altering Zelena's curse sufficiently, but not enough to prevent some memories from being distorted within their minds. 

 

* * *

 

Emma gets to a familiar line on the ground as she drives on a road way too far out in Maine and makes the bug come to a screeching halt. "We always pass this way when we go camping." She throws suspiciously at her unwelcomed nuisance.

 

"Storybrooke is beyond that line." The man gestures with his medieval looking appendage - a literal hook.

 

Emma's eyes narrow. "Like I said, my son and I have been this way a lot. We go camping out here. Beyond that line lies nothing but wilderness. The ocean isn't too far away but we're way past civilization and you're trying to convince me there's a fucking town back there. Your Storybook doesn't exist."

 

He grimaces. "You really do have a mouth on you, Swan."

 

"How do I know you're not lying? That you're not just some crazy stalker with way too much free time on your hands."

 

"Use your superpower love."

 

And Emma grits her teeth. This man sounded like he knew way too much about her. "Just because you believe something, doesn't make it true."

 

"Okay you know what? I give up!" He huffs, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut as he begins pacing directly in front of that weird chalk line on the ground that curiously never seemed to disappear.

 

"Finally!" Emma does the same, closing the door of the bug a bit more reverently as she marches on over to its front where the crazy dude was muttering about kingdom obligations and pirates. The man runs a hand through his greasy hair and then abruptly goes on a tirade.

 

" _No_ , I brought you all this way out of the goodness of my heart, wanted your Queen to come do it herself-"

 

"My Queen?"

 

"-but oh no, your mother needed her to defend the castle-"

 

"I don't have any parents." Emma hisses.

 

"- with magic from stupid flying monkeys and I promised your mother to deliver you to her-"

 

"You're a fucking nutjob, magic isn't real."

 

"-but you're making this unnecessarily difficult."

 

"Oh excuse me if I don't like being fucking assaulted when I just met someone." Emma huffs.

 

"It wasn't assault!" He says, flabbergasted.

 

"It fucking was you asshole! I got your stupid ass arrested, can still feel your slobber all over my face, don't you know about toothpaste from wherever you and your renaissance looking buddies are from?"

 

He sighs heavily. "But you bailed me out because you knew I was telling the truth."

 

Emma laughs, sharp and just a tad bit unhinged. "I bailed you out on a whim, because I remembered the beautiful woman I've been seeing in my dreams a whole lot saying something about a Storytown too."

 

"Beautiful woman?"

 

"Which, clearly I'm probably the crazy one between the both of us."

 

"What beautiful woman?"

 

"And you think that after practically telling me her life story she'd at least tell me her name but oh fucking no, straight up watches me with those fucking dark hypnotic eyes and that unfair cleavage and expects me to not react when she kisses me and I --"

 

"Swan what -"

 

"--fucking reacts like it's a mistake but it didn't feel that way and I want to find her so badly _I can't stand it_. And then you show up and suddenly she's there for a brief moment in my apartment for like a split second and I'm just supposed to fucking follow you to apparently the middle of nowhere and -"

 

"You met Regina?"

 

"Regina?" Emma pauses in her tirade, the name falling from her lips feeling strangely familiar.

 

"Listen, love. You know this is all real. You can feel it in your gut. You told me that. Now listen to your gut. What is it telling you?"

 

"That you're crazy and I'm probably on the brink of a mental break."

 

He sighs miserably. "Emma _please_. Humor me."

 

Emma folds her arms. "I'm not going beyond that line where cell service and civilization no longer exists."

 

"Come on woman!" The pirate grumbles.

 

Emma turns on her heels, emerald eyes burning fiercely. "Go fuck yourself."

 

"Fine!" He growls. "I'll just march on over the town line and tell Regina to come get you instead."

 

"Fine by me." Emma folds her arms. But she's unprepared for the man to literally _shove_ her past the chalk line.

 

Emma's entire body shimmers as she crosses the townline, white magic unfurling at the tips of her fingers and rushing through her body like a breath of fresh air. Her entire head feels foggy, dizzy and she staggers, being caught around the waist by Hook.

 

She groans, presses her aching head against his chest and closes her eyes. "Fuck, what the _fuck_." She murmurs, eyes blinking owlishly as she raises her suddenly heavy head and peers into the bright blue irises of none other than Captain Hook.

 

"Well love, if you wanted to throw yourself at me, all you had to do was ask." He smirks.

 

Emma rolls her eyes, presses her hands against cheap leather and pushes herself off of him. "Not in this lifetime, pirate."

 

He smiles, amused. "Welcome back, Swan."

 

"We're back." She says, eyes settling on the sprawling city of Storybrooke in the distance. She peers over at Hook and he nods.

 

"Aye, love. And now that you remember who you are, let's get young Henry out of school to make our grand return and deal with another problem."

 

* * *

 

The problem turns out to be the wicked witch of the west -- Regina's apparent sister who no one, not even Regina knew about.

 

Emma wishes she was kidding when they figure out her identity just in time for the woman to steal David's courage, Regina's heart and fail in stealing Neal, her newborn baby brother who her parents made a literal namesake to older Neal. Dead Neal.

 

That's not the only problem. Apparently Regina found her soulmate and she barely speaks to Emma, preferring to send messages to her through Henry again and it gets to such an unbearable level that Emma finds herself wanting to take Henry and leave Storybrooke.

 

* * *

 

But Emma's  _The Savior_. And she begins to once again resent the title as she spends long hours in the station and on patrol in the town hunting for Zelena.

 

They had no idea what she was planning and that was eating at all of them. Especially the fact that she had Regina's heart.

 

And that tiny detail is all Emma seems to be able to focus on. Because she's stuck here, _wanting_ , and it's terrible because Regina has a soulmate from the other world, one she'd acquired via pixie dust and how can she compete with that when the rules governing soulmates in the real world isn't as clearly laid out as fairytale land.

 

It's frustrating and drives Emma to near distraction the longer she stays thinking about it.

 

"You going out on patrol tonight?" David asks her from a desk over and it's only then that Emma snaps out of her jumbled thoughts to realize she'd been glaring at her laptop screen.

 

"Yeah, you spending some time with mom?"

 

David nods. "Yeah, giving her a little reprieve from your brother, he's got a pair of lungs on him." He chuckles.

 

And Emma smiles, too bright and too intense and hates all of these new changes in a place she once again didn't feel like she belonged in. David looks at her a little funny. "Great." She says, taking up her jacket and her keys.

 

"Are you okay?" He asks.

 

Emma nods, thinking of exactly where she could go now that the loft had three occupants and Regina's mansion was suddenly 'hotel a la forest'. "I'll be out if you need me."


	5. Chapter 5

 

"…Mi alma encontró  
a mi corazón. Destrozado, pero vivo,  
sucio, mal vestido y lleno de amor."  
— Roberto Bolaño, “Sucio Mal Vestido,” The Romantic Dogs

translation: “My soul found my heart. Shattered, but alive, dirty, poorly dressed and filled with love.”

 

**Dear readers, I regret to inform you that at this time this is the only chapter still currently incomplete since I've been re-structuring it. I apologize. Please bear with me while I fix it for you**

**\- xo Kayla**

* * *

 

Emma's consumed with self loathing and almost can't stand the negativity that shakes her chest and fills her heart.

 

She _envies_ her brother, envies his youth and his time with their parents and can't help but lament that she's been replaced.

 

She makes it a point to not be at the loft whenever they're home, starts taking even more shifts at the station and practically living out of her bug again.

 

They'd noticed her aversion to her brother -- of course they did. He was their perfect summer child and she was the black sheep. She'd showed up fully grown and they'd had nothing that they could even really teach her.

 

Henry makes it a point to split his time equally between staying at the mansion and at the loft. 

 

He watches her with careful knowing eyes that Emma curiously feels exposed under as he repeatedly tries getting her and Regina to talk out their issues -- which they avoid like the plague.

 

Hood was the one who'd lost Regina's heart - literally, and Emma's still sullen that Regina had even given it to him to hide from Zelena in the first place.

 

According to Henry, Regina and Hood weren't even really together even though she had offered him and Roland room at the mansion. He said that they _acted more like good friends who occasionally kissed_.

 

That was downright _gross._ And Emma's _annoyed_.

 

Because Regina had told her something different. She had given her the stupid fairy dust story and the Enchanted Forest customs and it all sounds like bullshit to Emma because Regina has a soul creature. Granted, since returning to Storybrooke Emma hadn't seen her or Bagheera.

 

But Emma was convinced that she and Regina were soulmates. It's a truth that settles warmly in her heart, right where her younger self's bubbly feelings of love for the dream princess resides.

 

And yet, Hood was the one getting relationship privileges because he and his son staying at the mansion apparently allowed Regina not to be annoyed with him when he lost her heart.

 

Regina comes round the office to bring her lunch which Emma supposes is probably a cover for checking up on her for her parents. And Emma can't help her sweeping gaze that always takes in every single one of Regina's outfits in detail.

 

Her dark red blouse is loose, dipping modestly in the front where the buttons are curiously hidden. Emma's eyes appreciatively linger there, tripping over smooth mouth watering olive skin and drowning in memories of dipping her tongue into that cleavage before drifting down to her waist where the blouse is tucked into a dark practically painted on skirt that accentuates her shapely behind. It's paired with Regina's favourite pair of red heels which Emma appreciates because they make her calves stand out and her legs look longer. And she holds back a groan because this woman _really_ knows her body and how to make Emma an incoherent mess by just existing.

 

Her eyes finally snap up to dark ones that are taking her in in much the same regard and Emma's ever so glad that she had taken her jacket off to drape it over the back of her seat, leaving her in her white tank top and jeans. She can feel that gaze blazing across her own skin like a physical caress, lingering on her arms and her chest. She plays it up, leans back against her chair placing her arms over the handles and her face flushes when Regina's lustful eyes drop to her crotch. That look rushes directly between Emma's thighs and she abruptly clears her throat as Regina's eyes find hers.

 

And this situation between them is all fucking bullshit because she can _see_ _the want_ in those eyes, she can _see_ _the longing_ and _it just isn't fair_. 

 

Emma swallows thickly and she's just ready to confront Regina again when _Hood_ pops through the door too.

 

"Good day Sheriff!" He greets and Emma's fists shakily curl into the notes in the file she was pitifully scribbling on when he kisses Regina on the cheek and takes off down the hall again and into the new wing that they were now using for Graham as his new office.

 

Emma appreciates that Graham didn't actually die and that he got his old job back alongside her but she  _hates_ how buddy buddy they all are. Actually she hates when anybody is remotely nice to Hood.

 

There's a light to Regina's eyes that Emma automatically begrudges, and she takes out her cellphone and texts Hook  _I think I'll take you up on that offer for drinks_.

 

Regina finally manages to stop standing just inside the door and walks on over to her, places her purse down on Emma's desk and rummages in it for a letter which she sticks pointedly over the file Emma's halfheartedly pretending she's deeply concentrating on. Emma takes it without looking directly at her and she opens it up just for something to do. Her stomach drops when she reads the words _Robin Hood recommended for the position of Deputy_ and its signed by Mayor Regina Mills.

 

That tension between her and Regina is still there going strong and Emma just _knows_ they're gonna have another row about this soulmate situation soon because she just can't seem to let it go and she's stupid enough to want to repeatedly confront Regina about it.

 

"You want to make this forest dweller one of my deputies." Emma says lowly and she can't imagine what the look on her own face must be like.

 

"You know Ruby left to go to the city and we don't know when or if she'll be back, plus there's an opening for another deputy position."

 

"Since when?" Emma practically hisses, standing up now and leaning over her desk to point an accusing finger at Regina. "You gave me so much shit for even hiring Ruby in the first place, yet you increase our budget _just_ so he can work here?"

 

"He has a _son_ , he _needs_ a job!" Regina says pointedly, taking a step back from Emma's desk and Emma growls.

 

"Then let him find one somewhere else."

 

Regina rolls her eyes and folds her arms. "This is more specific to his role in the old world. He likes righting injustices in the world."

 

"Oh yeah? Tell him to right this great injustice then, the injustice of you not giving me a goddamn chance."

 

"Emma." Regina says softly and Emma trembles and can't believe how unhappy she feels.

 

"We met again, Regina. In that dreamscape. Hell, I saw you in Boston! You told me your life story for fuck's sake. You even kissed me! Why would you do that when you'd already found him? Were you seeing him then too and holding onto me as some sick twisted joke?!" She hisses fiercely as her heart lurches painfully. And she's totally unprepared for the tears that stream down her face.

 

Regina looks on the verge of tears herself as she stands rigidly before Emma's desk, not moving an inch and Emma can't believe that a few weeks ago Regina told her to _move on like she did_. And Emma hurts and longs for their past.

 

"Emma." Regina says again. "I -"

 

Hood comes back in just before Regina's fully able to reply and the arm he slings around her shoulder makes Emma quake with jealousy.

 

They're the perfect little family - Regina, Henry, Roland and _him_.

 

Emma _resents_ him for it. Can barely even look Regina in the eyes as she shoves her keys into her pockets and puts on her jacket.

 

"Everything alright?" Hood asks Regina as he notices the strange tension brimming between them. Emma doesn't hear Regina's reply as she moves towards the door.

 

"Where are you going? It's the middle of the day." Regina addresses her and Emma allows herself just one more glance back at the 'happy couple'. Except, Regina doesn't look so happy there in Hood's arms and she shrugs it off a second later. It sends a tiny hopeful flutter down Emma's spine but she squashes it immediately.

 

Regina believes more in this pixie dust than the dreams they'd shared and Emma just wants to shake her as she herself shakes with anger and rage and a deep keening sense of helplessness.

 

"I'm going for a drink." She says stiffly.

 

"It's the middle of the day." Hood interjects his very unwanted judgmental opinion and Emma cuts him a glare so fierce it shuts him up immediately.

 

"With the pirate." Regina spits. Emma revels in the bitterness to her tone. "That's who you're moving on with?"

 

"You told me to." Emma says, vindictive and spiteful and intent to let Regina draw her own conclusions that were so very far from this little drinking acquaintanceship she'd found herself in with the pirate captain. There was certainly no romantic affiliations or attraction on her part. "So I'm sure in time I will." and she turns on her heel and leaves the station.

 

* * *

 

 

 

Regina only sees Emma around town for the rest of that week. But every time she does, Hook was practically attached to her side like a damn shadow.

 

It makes her blood boil and she longs to make things right between them. Snow was urging her to.

 

Snow had yet to go back out to work, preferring to stay home and tend to Neal while David splits his time between the animal shelter and the Sheriff's station. Emma was certainly surprised that they'd grown so close within that year in the Enchanted Forest as whenever the idea strikes, Snow visits Regina with baby Neal tucked in the bassinet Regina bought as an accessory to her office for him. 

 

"Have you tracked down where your heart is yet?" Snow asks softly from the couch opposite Regina's table as she cradles Neal in her arms.

 

Regina puts her pen down and frowns at the many reports and declarations she was currently overwhelmed by. She was too unfocused lately to get much of anything done other than worry about the location of her missing heart and what big nuisance her sister was planning.

 

"No." She swallows thickly, hand going instinctively over the hollow in her chest where her heart used to be before she gave it to Robin for safe keeping. Zelena had still managed to get it after defeating her in that humiliating fight. "But I'm still looking, I mean, it's been what? Three weeks?"

 

"And still no sign of Zelena." Snow grimaces. "I don't like this, I don't like not knowing where she is."

 

Regina sighs heavily. "I know, I've combed this town repeatedly with magic and there's still no sign of her."

 

"I can't believe I let her babysit Neal."

 

"Don't remind me."

 

"At least Emma's still looking too."

 

At the mention of the Sheriff that hollow place inside Regina curiously aches. Not as intensely as it once felt, but just a hollow ring that Regina can't ignore without touching the spot. She sighed heavily. Even heartless, Emma Swan could still cause her emotional woes.

 

Regina knew that Snow was worried for them both especially when she had caved and told Snow some of the details concerning their magical predicament. Snow had gone all misty eyed at her words and Regina had felt herself tearing up too but she'd shaken it off.

 

"I don't know what to do, Snow." Regina admits ruefully. Snow looks at her knowingly.

 

"At least be a friend to Emma." Snow quietly requests. "Since we came back I can tell she's...uncomfortable." Regina glances down at baby Neal as Snow holds him. "She doesn't think that she can talk to any of us so she rarely does. Ruby isn't here anymore since she left for the city and Emma mostly just talks to Henry."

 

"I don't know, she's been spending an awful amount of time with the pirate." Regina grumbles.

 

Snow grimaces. "I've noticed. But he's harmless."

 

Regina scoffs. "He hangs around her like a bad disease."

 

Snow's eyes crinkle as she smiles. "He does smell a bit doesn't he?"

 

"A bit? That's his signature scent! I'm willing to bet he bottles it since he has no knowledge of functional bath soap."

 

They laugh for a bit at that but then Regina thinks of how close Emma's allowed him. He's always got an arm around her shoulder now or her waist and Regina's contempt for him only seems to grow in waves.

 

"I'm a damn hypocrite." She admits quietly.

 

"How so?"

 

"I told her to move on like I did." Regina swallows thickly. "Only I'm stuck here being jealous of Hook and hating his very existence because I _haven't_ moved on. I _can't_ and I don't want her to." She scoffs at herself. "I'm being ridiculous aren't I?"

 

"I think you're both being ridiculous." Snow says pointedly. Regina laughs, swiping at the tears that spill down her cheek. "But that's what love does." Snow smiles. "It makes us crazy stupid."

 

* * *

 

Another week passes by in a blur as they all settle into the tentative peace Zelena's stalling had lulled them into. Robin and Roland seem to settle comfortably in at the mansion and with their fleetingly established relationship, Regina tries to just settle into the domesticity of it all. They don't share a room. Robin and Roland share the guest room directly opposite Regina and Henry's bedrooms.

 

Henry comes over a lot now. He splits his time easily between his family and hugs her more freely and she gets emotional every single time she notices that extra inch he had grown, even without her heart twinging with remorse in her chest. He tells her all about his new friends he's made in the city and about how different their lives were there.

 

There's a longing to his tone when he speaks, one that scares Regina and makes her wonder if Emma feels that way too.

 

She must...

 

Henry spoke about his teachers and his classes and Emma's bland fiancé who he'd curiously never really gotten attached to. That's the only thing that Regina takes solace in. Emma hadn't deigned it necessary to address the fact that apparently her cursed self was so happy she'd fallen in love and gotten a damn fiancé in the process.

 

Because they didn't address most things like that, things that had the potential to shift things between them.

 

Well, Emma tried, with the soulmate situation. Oh she tried. But Regina just wouldn't let her. She wanted _clarity_ over the situation and that wouldn't come from speculation -- which is what this entire thing with Emma was, speculation.

 

And on top of all of that, the situation with Hood had made her feel _guilty_. Tinkerbell had told her once that she'd ruined his life by not going into that tavern when she was younger. And now that Snow's curse had displaced him and his son from the Enchanted Forest and into the real world, she felt like she was responsible for him. Responsible for making sure that he was happy here. Even though that meant that this thing between her and Emma that had barely been given a label couldn't be given a fresh start.

 

She'd started up her research on soulmates and soul creatures again with intensity. She's uneasy about their whole situation, about hurting Emma like she was...again. She hasn't spoken to the Sheriff in quite a while and all of her texts go unanswered and her calls go straight to voicemail.

 

It also doesn't help that she overhears Hook at the diner boasting about having the Sheriff over in his Captain's quarters on the Jolly Roger -- something she realizes that he does specifically to annoy her because when she looks on over at him, he's smirking right at her.

 

Regina ignores him but the innuendo in his tone worsens the drunker he gets and she's _seething_ , purple magic crackling from her fists by the time Henry meets her there an hour later after school and she forgoes spending another second in the establishment so they go home to make dinner.

 

Another week passes by before Robin starts up as a deputy with Emma.

 

He comes home in the best mood and thanks Regina, kissing her enthusiastically, something she never quite feels as ardently as when Emma kisses her. But she kisses him back, he's her enchanted forest pixie dust approved soulmate and they're happy. Or at least as happy as can be.

 

Roland runs over to play video games with Henry in the den and Robin's long kisses tell her he's in a mood. She pulls away. They haven't moved passed anything but kissing on the lips and Regina walks quickly into the kitchen to distract him with food.

 

That sufficiently diverts his attention and they spend a quiet evening together talking about his new job and enrolling Roland in school.

 

* * *

 

Her doorbell rings at an ungodly hour after they've all gone to bed and Regina gets up in a bit of a mood. She marches down the stairs, but doesn't turn on any lights as she looks through the peephole to see who's interrupting her slumber.

 

She's surprised when she sees Emma there slumped against the doorway pillar and she immediately unlocks the door.

 

"Emma." She says, eyes greedily taking in the Sheriff's form as she straightens her posture. She's in her signature clothes, black tank top paired with skinny jeans and that red leather jacket she adores so much and Regina feels that tug in her chest, faint, but there and she wonders at that curiosity. "What are you doing here?"

 

"To congratulate you on your new deputy." Emma slurs a little, and Regina immediately notices the way she staggers slightly when she steps forward, one hand hidden behind her back as she presses herself against the door frame.

 

"You're drunk." Regina surmises. 

 

"Mmm, not drunk enough."

 

Regina's eyes narrow. "Robin said that you left the station early with Hook."

 

"Is that why you want him there?" Emma says lowly. "To spy on me?"

 

Regina grits her teeth. "Don't be idiotic."

 

Emma chuckles, tilting her head skywards. " _He's_ fucking idiotic. I had to almost drink myself into the next day just so I didn't come here the minute I hired him to tell you that your thief can barely read or follow orders to get around an obstacle course."

 

Regina's brows furrow. "Most in the Enchanted Forest can't unless they come from privileged families. That's no reason to discriminate, Miss Swan."

 

"Miss Swan." Emma grumbles and Regina's eyes hold hers sorrowfully, apologetically. "And okay, that was shitty of me but I don't like him."

 

"I know." Regina says, taking Emma's hand into hers. "Thank you."

 

"I'd do anything for you." Emma says softly, eyes intense and dark green as she stares longingly at Regina.

 

That phantom feeling in Regina's chest where her heart should be curiously quickens at the declaration, at the intensity to Emma who never seems to shy away from the enormity of what she was feeling. Even when she was younger. Regina admires that about her, how she's brash and unapologetic and so stubbornly persistent when she wants something.

 

"Oh, I got something for you." Emma whispers lowly and a second later she's removing her hand from behind her back and producing a soft leather pouch.

 

Regina watches her curiously as Emma smiles at her, unzipping the tiny opening and producing Regina's half blackened pulsing heart. Regina gasps, eyes widening as Emma tucks the flimsy pouch into her back pocket, holding Regina's heart in her hands.

 

"How..." Regina trails off and her eyes catch Emma's as Emma moves forward, pressing her against the door with her hips. The sudden contact makes Regina's breath hitch as her hand steadies at Emma's waist.

 

"I stole it from Zelena." Emma admits quietly as Regina's hands rise to cup over Emma's and they both look intently at the now only half blackened heart. Emma raises her head and Regina's eyes are helplessly drawn to hers. "I've been looking for it forever."

 

The weight of that sentence has Regina quivering and she can't reply, not with the way her throat closes up and her eyes threaten to burn with salty tears. She's already overwhelmed with gratitude and love in varying amounts and doesn't even need her heart to feel them so acutely for this woman.

 

As Regina's hands fall away, Emma's hand moves towards her chest and she inhales sharply as the organ is pressed back into its rightful spot in her body. And she remembers the pain of mother taking out her heart whenever she wanted to make Regina do things she didn't want to, remembers the pain of pulling the thing out herself. But as Emma's white magic blankets her hand which holds Regina's heart so reverently, all Regina feels in the transfer is a million tiny little reasons to keep falling in love with Emma Swan.

 

Regina's jaw trembles at the sight of Emma's pleased little smile, at the emotions that pass between them as Emma presses her ear against her chest, just to hear her heart beat. And _oh_ does it beat. It beats itself numb, overwhelming Regina with all of the messy fluttery feelings that shake inside her chest as she curls her hands in Emma's hair.

 

Emma stands and leans into her touch, tucks her face against Regina's neck and curls a hand at that dip in her waist.

 

"How can you discount this? Discount us?" Emma whispers, pressing herself a bit more firmly against Regina as Regina struggles to ground herself.

 

"Pixie dust doesn't lie Emma." Regina says, parroting that same line she's been feeding her all this time. Emma looks up at her then, disappointed and heartbroken and so like young Emma that Regina's heart _hurts_.

 

"Then how do you explain the reason we met?"

 

"This land has strange customs, even stranger are its soulmate rules for which neither I nor Gold can understand."

 

"Regina."

 

"Emma." She places a palm against Emma's cheek. "You don't want me." And Regina doesn't know why she says that. Except she kinda does. She's seen Emma with the pirate. She's seen her smiling and looking very much at peace in his company and she can't even begin to fathom just how they even manage to get along as well as they do. 

 

Emma's fingers curl against the dip at Regina's hips and she leans forward, lips ghosting across the rise of Regina's cheek. Regina sighs, scrunches her eyes shut as Emma places a barely there kiss against her neck and disappears in a curl of white smoke.

 

The whisper of _I couldn't want anything more_ landing like a warm pulsing balm across her newly returned heart.

 

* * *

 

Emma had woken up the next morning with a pulsing headache and a sour taste in her mouth. She'd grimaced, blinking blearily up at the ceiling in her bug and groaning at the ache present in her lower back even though she'd fully reclined the seat.

 

She'd sighed heavily, sitting up and immediately taking stock of her surroundings. Apparently she had parked far out, a mile or so away from that barn just on the edge of Storybrooke where she'd found Zelena's hideout. 

 

She'd actually driven all the way out there, following along the too dark road that led away from Storybrooke and curved around the forest. She was too tipsy from distractedly trying to drink with Hook all evening to care about the direction of her travels but suddenly something like a black shadowy beast had darted across the road. She'd swerve to prevent from colliding with the creature but had sent her bug screeching along the small road and careening into a tree. The force of the impact didn't do anything but making her alcohol filled stomach lurch uncomfortably and she'd immediately stumbled out of the bug to take stock of its damages.

 

The front had a sizable dent that would be a bitch to fix and the lights were completely smashed in. She could almost hear the lecture her parents and Regina would deliver on her careless driving and she'd immediately huff and suddenly gotten the urge to walk. She'd needed to clear her head and her heart from everything she was feeling so she'd ventured out on her own in the dead of night.

 

She remembers seeing something in the distance, something that looked like the luminescent body of a swan, and she'd followed it willingly, uncaring of how far she had to walk. Her confusing thoughts were all obviously centered around Regina, quickly followed by her parents and her new replacement and when the swan had disappeared within the walls of a barn, she'd stumbled into that barn after it, but paused considerably when she noticed some weird engravings etched into a circle on the ground.

 

It hadn't made any sense to her at all but she immediately knew that it had to have been linked to Zelena. The very air around her seemed to crackle with Zelena's magic and she'd gasped and stumbled forward when she'd noticed a half blackened heart lying in the center of the weird ritualistic looking circle. 

 

She'd dropped to her knees, stunned at what she was seeing as she'd picked the heart up and felt her own quicken in response. That's how she'd know it was Regina's and she'd cradled it closer to her chest, immediately emotional at her find as her eyes burned.

 

That had led to her wanting to return the heart that very instant and she'd gone to Regina's house - which turned into their scheduled confrontation on the whole soulmate front and had left Emma feeling more depressed than usual.

 

But she had found Zelena's hideout, a fact she was obsessively pondering over and she was planning on checking out that barn again tonight. They had to capture that woman before she wrecked any more havoc on the town.

 

She was so wrapped up in her own musings that she'd honestly forgotten that Hood was starting as a new Deputy that morning and when she walked into the station and saw his stupid smiling face her mood had immediately frosted over. She'd greeted him stiltedly and sat herself down in her chair before she'd gotten fed up of his staring and general lost look and sent him out on patrol -- for the entire day.

 

Graham had come in a bit late and even inquired about her frosty mood but she'd just shrugged him off and tried immersing herself in filling out those stupid reports she always kept pushing back. He'd asked where she'd sent Robin and given her a little knowing smile when she avoided the topic and instead asked him about patrolling the forested area, mentioning offhandedly that she'd told Robin to patrol the entire town.

 

Graham had laughed and cuffed her affectionately on the shoulder, pulling a reluctant smile to Emma's lips as he told her to take it easy on the new recruit. Then he'd shrugged his jacket on and told her he was heading off to that forested area and would check on Robin on his way back.

 

"Order for Sheriff Swan?" A familiar voice breaks through Emma's thought riddled mind as her head jerks up from her lazy scrawling on a report in her office. She squints at the person in the doorway and when she finally notices Ruby she springs from her chair immediately. 

 

"Ruby!" She yells, delighted, and it's the first time in  _weeks_ she's felt a genuine smile come to her face as Ruby rushes over and into her arms. "What are you doing here?"

 

Ruby hums, squeezing Emma just a bit tighter before letting her go. "I came to visit my kickass godchild."

 

Emma raises an eyebrow. "You know I can't take you seriously when you call me that right?"

 

Ruby gasps, offended. "Emma Swan, show some respect for your elders!"

 

Emma rolls her eyes playfully. "Let me guess, Snow called?"

 

"She didn't have to, I was planning on coming back anyway."

 

"Whatcha been up to in the city?"

 

"Oh _no no no_ Sheriff Swan, I'm not discussing this in this depressing work environment. What time does your shift end?"

 

Emma stares over at the clock. "Uh actually it ended half an hour ago, I'm just waiting for Graham to get back from patrolling."

 

Ruby raises an eyebrow as she walks on over to Emma's desk and pockets her car keys. "Okay so basically what I heard is that there's literally nothing here to do, come on let's go." She tosses Emma's jacket to her.

 

"I mean, I should wait for Graham, it's proper protocol and -"

 

"Who gives a shit? Storybrooke barely has any crime, and if any of these evil magic users showed up they'd attack the entire town and you'd have holes gaping out of the ceilings or chunks of concrete missing from buildings. So I'm pretty sure we'd notice."

 

Emma laughs and shrugs on her jacket as Ruby curls an arm around hers. "Point made. Let's go."

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

**(still editing and reworking this chapter only because I wasn't satisfied with it so I removed most of it from here. But it will be updated, i'm so sorry for those of you who've already gotten here, life got in the way)**

 

 

 

* * *

 


	6. Epilogue

"And then my soul saw you and it kind of went, ‘Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.  
— Iain Thomas, I Wrote This For You

 

* * *

 

They're at the table having dinner, a meal of Regina's classic lasagna and mashed potatoes accompanied with steamed vegetables.

 

It's such a welcomed relief from what they'd been eating lately that Regina's surprised when neither Henry nor Emma complain amount the amount of vegetables Regina's given them each.

 

They're quietly sitting, enjoying each other's company when Henry's head suddenly snaps up and his eyes narrow suspiciously in Regina's direction.

 

She raises an eyebrow, knowing the tactic well having been drilled relentlessly by a pre-curse broken pre-teen Henry. She'd recognize that little twist to his lips, the defiant little blaze in his eyes that lets her know that he knows something.

 

Except, she doesn't know what it could be. Has no clue if she's being honest. She hasn't lied to him by omission in years.

 

"Mom, are you sure you've told me everything?" Henry asks cryptically, eyes studiously trained on her.

 

She puts down her cutlery, looks over to Emma for support and sees the confused frown on her face that’s no doubt mirrored in her own expression.

 

"Kid, just come out with it." Emma says, pausing mid bite with a fork fill of lasagna in her hand.

 

A pause. And Regina knows that Henry knows he's got them intrigued if that sly little uptick of his lips was anything to go by - a telling Mills trait when one thought that they had the upper hand on something.

 

"I saw a new story in the book today." Henry says, eyes flickering between his parents. "It's an untold story."

 

"Oh? And what is this story about?"

 

He fixes them with a look that leaves him looking so much like the mirror image of Regina that Emma can't resist slipping her phone out her pocket and taking a picture of their simultaneously unimpressed expressions...which are automatically turned on her.

 

"Hey, mom says no phones at the table, how come you get to have yours?" He glowers.

 

"She doesn't." Regina interjects and Emma rolls her eyes.

 

"Jeez kid, let me live a little." Emma grumbles.

 

And Henry sticks his tongue out at her, shying away from Emma when she launches over and ruffles his perfectly coiffed hairdo.

 

"Ma." He groans. "Stop distracting me, you guys are in big trouble." He gathers his book, the one Emma had been jokingly calling 'the fairytale bible' and opens it for them.

 

There on the pages of Henry's book are Emma and Regina, meeting for the first time in that open field with the lone giant apple tree standing behind them.

 

Regina’s in her blue riding coat, lengthy braided hair hanging off of a shoulder, a hand perched on the bark of the tree and a black velvet panther curled at her leg.

 

Emma’s side profile can be seen, messy blonde curls cascading in a golden waterfall behind her as she’s paused on the little incline that leads up to the tree, a hand held out towards Regina and a beautiful swan perched on her shoulder.

 

The meadow beneath the incline they were standing on was filled with wild red and orange flowers, and butterflies with every color of the rainbow and Emma smiles, remembering the distinct thick, sweet smell in that always permeated the air.

 

"Look." Regina says softly, fingers skirting down the paper and settling beneath the admittedly realistic looking picture.

 

Beneath the picture a few words are written. The text is in a rich cursive elegant script, characteristic of the story book.

 

It reads: _A meeting of soulmates_

 

"It was real." Emma whispers, eyes lifting to Regina's as she nods.

 

"How did that happen?" Henry asks curiously and they both look at each other and then back down to the book.

 

"Dreams." Emma says. "We met each other for the fist time in our dreams."

 

"How old were you?"

 

"Uh, almost eighteen." Emma turns to regard Regina who nods.

 

"It was a couple of months before I had met Snow and your mother," Regina nudges Emma in the shoulder. "Was a bit of a troublemaker."

 

 "Oh you really wanna go there, _princess_?" Emma goads, pressing her nose against Regina's as she grins widely.

 

"Ew you guys aren't gonna start making out are you?" Henry makes a face. "Because if so, i'm done with breakfast."

 

Regina smiles, soft and sweet and kisses Emma softly on the cheek before turning to their son. "Come on, it's time for you to get dressed for school."

 

"Wait, aren't you two getting dressed too?" Henry’s eyes widen comically. "Are we taking a day off? Because my friend-"

 

"No dear, _you_ are heading to school, your Mother and I are the ones staying home."

 

"But!"

 

"No buts, you have a field trip today to the Museum of Natural Sciences."

 

" _Mom_." Henry whines. "Ma, help me." He turns to Emma pitifully.

 

Emma just smiles and tugs Regina closer. "Sorry kid, you're on your own."

 

"And I expect you to be on your best behavior." Regina finishes.

 

Henry grumbles muttering sullenly as he leaves the table, shooting them that little pout that usually makes Regina give in and let him have anything he wants. But Emma isn't having any of that, she distracts Regina with a kiss, a long deep one, strategically so and Henry huffs loudly and pointedly drags his feet all the way up the stairs.

 

Emma chuckles against Regina's lips as Regina looks at her with an eyebrow raised.

 

"Something funny dear?"

 

She shrugs, leaning over to kiss Regina softly on the lips again, sighing blissfully when Regina's hands frame warmly against her face, pulling her in further as she nips against her bottom lip. It's entirely distracting and Emma revels in it, revels in this easy going thing between them that they fought tooth and nail for. And as they break the kiss, Emma can't seem to even let go of the woman.

 

"I love it when you go all mama bear. It's hot." Emma breathes quietly against her ear. Regina chuckles, a shiver trickling down her spine when Emma places a barely there kiss against her neck.

 

And she leans easily into Emma now as the blonde curls up at her side and splays the book over their thighs.

 

They both seem to lose themselves in the picture, observing the scene as their younger selves interact for the first time. What Regina notices mostly is how vibrant the foliage in the surrounding forest looks. The artistic use of green compliments Emma's eyes perfectly.

 

"Did I ever tell you why I chose green as my favourite color?"

 

Emma's tilts her head and scrunches her brows, the action akin to a confused puppy as her eyes catch warm dark ones.

 

"I thought your eyes were so beautiful, I'd never seen anything like them before. The only other I could compare it to were Odette's. But then I'm guessing those were based on yours, I imagine that's exactly how it made it to the top of my favorite's list."

 

The smile that touches Emma's lips is utterly charming, it gives her this breathless look as her cheeks bloom a rosy red and her eyes dart down to the book in a suddenly shy gesture that leaves Regina feeling all soft and achy in the pit of her stomach.

 

"Oh Emma, your eyes are beautiful! Majestic! I can stare at them all day!" Emma playfully mocks in a high pitched voice. Regina swats her on the ass and she yelps in surprise.

 

"My voice was never that high pitched and I said it with much more tact than that, dear. I knew what I was doing."

 

"Are you saying that younger you was basically flirting with me?" Emma says, obnoxiously wiggling her eyebrows.

 

Regina smiles, predatory and so damn sexy Emma almost can't breathe.

 

She releases a breathless puff of air, tilting her head up with that same smile playing along her lips and a mixture of amused adoration in her eyes.

 

"I can appreciate the fact that I thought they were the most beautiful jade I'd ever seen. Unique. Especially the way it catches the light and shimmers with gold sometimes."

 

Emma blushes. Regina chuckles.

 

"And here I thought I'd be the one writing poems about you." Emma says, shuffling forward to place the book on the table.

 

"I'll have you there soon enough."

 

"Confident are you?" Emma smiles back, tossing a leg over Regina.

 

Regina chuckles, curls arms around the Sheriff's waist and pulls their bodies flush against each other as Emma's arms slip loosely around her shoulders.

 

"Shut up, Sheriff." She says.

 

"Bite me, Madam Mayor."

 

Regina surges forward, and does just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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